Serving as a volunteer for a non-profit organization is an effectual way to both contribute to the community and achieve valuable experience that can be useful in one’s future life. For the current course, I served as a volunteer for the Houston Food Bank, which is a private, not-for-profit agency that is dedicated to preparing foods and providing it to the hungry; the distribution occurs both at Houston Food Bank and via a wide array of partner charities. Apart from that, Houston Food Bank has a variety of other projects aimed at supplying assistance to those in need. The facility that I served at is located in the eastern part of Houston, Texas.
The Type of Clients Served
During my work as a volunteer, I had a chance to serve a plenitude of clients coming from the lower socioeconomic class; these persons had incomes so low that they often could not afford adequate nutrition. On the whole, our clients had varying levels of income. Some of them had housing and clothing, but were experiencing significant difficulties when they had to pay rent or utility bills, and were unable to purchase clothes of sufficient quality or eat adequate meals. Other clients had even lower amounts of financial resources, and were not capable of affording permanent housing, any new clothes, or even the most basic food. The clients were both male and female individuals, although in general, among adults, the number of women was greater than the number of men. Their age varied, but a considerable proportion of them were middle-aged; however, there also were some young individuals, as well as many children (these sometimes were with their parents).
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What Was Learned During the Experience
During my experience, I was able to learn a considerable amount of valuable information pertaining to the issues of organizing and carrying out measures aimed at preparation and distribution of food. I had the chance to both work in the warehouse and at a food distribution site, so I obtained both the knowledge of how to manage, prepare, and store large amounts of food and the experience of distributing products to a considerable number of individuals. In addition, during my work at the food distribution site, I had the chance to engage in a plenitude of conversations with people who came to acquire their meals from us. These interactions were most educational. They permitted me to learn more about the life experiences of individuals stricken with poverty.
For instance, some of our clients told us how they were unable to find adequate jobs, since their families did not have sufficient financial resources for them to be able to pay college tuition fees; therefore, these people were forced to sell their unskilled labor that was extremely underpaid, and which barely allowed them to pay their utility bills and feed their children, let alone purchase adequate clothing. Other clients were homeless; a woman with college education told me a story of how she was a single mother and a widow who lost her job after the birth of a child, and did not have enough money to pay her bills, so she was deprived of her property by the court and was forced to live in the street or find temporary shelters with her child; once she lost her housing, no employer would give her a job, so she had to beg in the street.
On the whole, apart from providing me with experience of working at the warehouse, my volunteer work has supplied me with a chance to engage in personal communication with individuals with extremely low levels of income, and to learn more about their lives.
Future Plans Resulting From the Experience
The experience that I was able to acquire during my service as a volunteer at the Houston Food Bank has permitted me to formulate certain plans for my future. For instance, I expect that in the future, I will dedicate at least some amount of time to engage in more volunteer work so as to have another chance to provide assistance for individuals with extremely low income. In my academic endeavors, I will probably attempt to additionally concentrate on poverty studies so as to find out more about the causes of poverty and the methods that may be useful in preventing it and reducing its rates among the population.
The Benefits of the Experience
Generally speaking, the experience that I obtained at the Houston Food Bank has permitted me to expand my worldview and gain additional insights into the life of an impoverished individual. This has been quite useful, for has supplied me with an opportunity to obtain a more comprehensive picture of poverty. When poverty is studied in the academia, this often remains an impersonal experience; one simply learns about poverty rates, causes of poverty, related social issues, and so on. Even personal stories provided in some learning materials do not compare to the actual experience of communicating with a person affected by this problem. Therefore, my volunteer’s work has allowed me to “put a face” to the problem of poverty and sympathize more with those having to deal with it on a daily basis.
Conclusion
All in all, it should be stressed that my working as a volunteer at the Houston Food Bank has allowed me to obtain a significant amount of valuable experience. I have gained not only some knowledge of how to work in a warehouse and manage large amounts of food, but also the experience of engaging in interaction with impoverished individuals. This experience has permitted me to better understand what poverty means on a personal level.
