My Volunteering Experience
My senior project I volunteered at the prime minister at Pantang Street and soup kitchen near the Joshua group on 14th and Market. My research will be based on these two organizations and similar ones. During CPD cougar ambassador volunteered at the Paxton ministries. I have realized one thing after volunteering this far, I don't really do much volunteering or know this city too well. At the very beginning I didn't know the soup kitchen was near where I lived if I had known I would have volunteer there over the summer.
The first soup kitchen I did research on was called Franciscan Charities, Inc. It was a soup kitchen located in Newark, New Jersey. They began in 2005 and is still going on. When they first began they only served 12 clients, even though they had little access to running water and electricity along with gang members standing opposite of the entrance and police calling them crazy they kept and eventually made it to 200. As time goes by they eventually build a kitchen and the church reopen. But to my surprised the very first soup kitchen was started by Al Capone during the Great Depression. (RPH)
At the Paxton Ministries we helped decorated the hall because it was close to the holidays and we played games with some of the residents there. I really enjoy my time there because they would tell us interesting stories. At first I didn't really know much about Harrisburg and how the community work even though I have lived here for a long time already but through this project I was able to go out to the city and meet people and do some community service. The Paxton Ministries was created to provide housing for anyone who need mental, emotional and social needs.(Pantang Ministries) I saw other than our school listed s volunteer even college fraternity and colleges also volunteer there.
During the homecoming weekend I volunteer for the pancake breakfast I helped welcoming people and getting them to where they need to go. It was nice to see a lot of people and what I liked most about it was at first it was awkward but at the end i was happy a lot of people enjoyed it. That was my first volunteer and I felt happy whenever someone said thank you because it felt nice to do something nice for people.
A major food bank program i saw was called “Food Bank of the Rockies” which is for people in Colorado. They distributed about 121,000 each day through different partner agencies. They are the largest private hunger-relief organization in the state of Colorado, founded in 1978. (Food Bank of the Rockies) They provide food for adults, senior citizens and children’s. This organization is the same “Francis and charities Inc. but at the same time also different. Francis is mostly religion based food charities receiving food from different churches and started from the bottom of a abandon church and is mostly volunteer. While Rockies have both employees and volunteers but started in a school-room.
The food bank program was created to help feed those who are in poverty. In 2013 45.3 people in the U.S. was in poverty. Pennsylvania ranked number 31 in Unemployment Rates for States Annual Average Rankings meaning a lot were in poverty or headed into poverty. Food banks volunteer usually aren't much. And a lot of food the food bank or soup kitchen receive are from donations like from our schools can drive.
A lot of the organizations I volunteer for or researched about have many things in common and indifferent from one another. For example a lot of the soup kitchens are church sponsor and have a religious background. But at the same time housing and some soup kitchens are governor sponsor.
Through this senior project I learn a lot more not only about the Harrisburg community but also other communities’ service. I learn to not waste too much because out there, there's a lot of people who are in poverty and soup kitchens provide food but the food needs to be donated in order for them to have food to serve.
