Volunteer Blog Post #1

I believe that volunteering is important, for it shows that you care about the community , and that you are willing to give back without anything in return. I did my volunteering at the “Greater Chicago Food Depository”, in my hometown of Chicago. The “Greater Chicago Food Depository” is a non-profit food bank. I did enjoy the volunteer experience, for it allowed me to give back to the community, and give back to those in need.

The major purpose for the participants of this event was to package the food, so it can be ready to be given out once the task was finished.

The equipment used during the volunteering experience was, plastic bags, boxes, and plastic scoopers. These were used for putting beans in plastic bags and boxes, and two scoops were the rations for each bag. For safety, or to keep the beans from being contaminated, we wore plastic gloves, and hair nets. The layout area was a number of tables with boxes of beans, and space in between the tables for each person. There were about 20 to 25 people , and 5 to 8 staff workers supervising us.

My responsibility of the day, was to package as ,any beans into plastic bags, and boxes before the volunteering experience was over. There was no training needed to participate in what we were doing. The benefit I received, is that I was able to help the people who are helping the community, and to know that people who are less fortunate will be receiving food to eat. I would volunteer again at this agency in the future.

If I was in charge of this event, I would not change the way that it was ran. I say that because I felt everything was explained clearly, and that there was no confusion during the time that I was there. Some things that I learned about leading activities during my time there, was that you should make what you are doing comfortable for everyone, for if everyone knows what they are doing, they will be comfortable and confident while doing it, and that will lead to success and growth.

I learned that I am able to work well with others, and am able to establish a relationship with them beyond just volunteering. An issue that I do see this agency facing is just not having enough people for the workload, for they do have tons of things that need to be done, even though they are handling all these responsibilities very well , I just feel having more people will make things easier on everyone.

That was my experience volunteering at the “Greater Chicago Food Depository”.