What do I do at the Food Bank?

My volunteer placement puts me in a position to see the large scale representation of how much food is donated and sent out on a daily basis. 


A daily shift is as follows:


7:45 am- Sign in and receive a name tag and proceed to volunteer break area for instructions


8:00 am- The volunteers are organized and placed into work groups depending on skill level 


8:15 am-9:45ish- We work together as an assembly line to sort all the incoming donations. During this time some people work on boxing together kits to send home with kids to provide meals for them and their families, also general kits to be used by all those in need. 


9:45ish- Break, we have a short break and get to interact with all the volunteers who are working that shift. This is my favorite time because I get to become acquainted with the different spread of people who are volunteering and hear their individual stories. 


10:00 am-11:00am- Finish boxing, sorting, bagging things and at 11 am the first shift is finished. The volunteers can choose to sign out or stay on for the 12pm-3pm shift.


This is the description from the website about what the weekday volunteers do:


Sort, screen, box and shelve food items, including fresh produce.
Individuals and groups are needed to help sort food into boxes that are distributed to the Food Bank’s partner agencies. Individual volunteers need to attend a 1 hour orientation, held at 12:45 pm on Wednesdays.  Groups—corporate, business, church, youth or other—are not required to attend a Wednesday orientation. Call (510) 635-3663 ext. 308 to sign up. 


I hope to eventually have the opportunity to volunteer with the emergency help line to have more contact with the people who use the food bank to get information on where they can secure food. Also, there is opportunities to work in the office filing paperwork, general clerical work, making phone calls on behalf of the food bank and working on special projects.


We usually have 1-2 supervisors on shift who are employees of the Food Bank that give us direction and instructions. Also, our volunteer manager is Sheila Burks, she makes cameos every once and awhile, she is very grateful for each and every volunteer no matter what brought us to the Food Bank. 


Anthropology has helped me to become an affective volunteer because I feel that I am able to relate to all of the different people there. I am interested in learning about all of the different reasons each of the volunteers are there. Also, I would like to help get the message of the Food Bank out there, they want to address hunger at its root cause, I think being an Anthropology student I would be helpful in examining what these root causes may be and how we can be affective in combating this problem.

Who uses the Food Bank?

The clients of the Alameda County Community Food Bank are many different people from many different backgrounds and socio-economic standings. The food bank acts as the hub of a collection and distribution network that serves over 275 non-profit organizations in Alameda County. The non-profit organizations that benefit from the Food Bank include, food pantries, soup kitchens, child-care centers, senior centers, after-school programs and other community-based organizations. These organizations provide over 300,000 meals a week to those in need.  The clients of the organization are benefitted by the Food Banks, emergency food hotline that will directly connect those with urgent need to food within hours, the food stamp education program , where people can call in and get assistance filling out their application for food stamps in many languages, as well as, hunger and nutritional education programs. 


In orientation, Sheila the volunteer coordination made sure to stress that the food bank supplies food to ALL those in need. One does not have to be a parent with children, a veteran, or any fit into any specific category, the food bank will do whatever it takes to supply those with a direct need with food. 1 in 5 families in Alameda County partake in the food supplied by the Food Bank, so I would imagine that there is a wide range of social backgrounds. One story Sheila told us was about a father who had lost his job recently and called into the help line to see about getting supplies so that he could provide his small son with a birthday party. The Food Bank was able to direct this man to a pantry that could give him supplies of buns and hot dogs, along with ingredients to make his son a birthday cake. Small experiences like this are able to provide those that are struggling with the small pleasures of life that they may have forgotten about in the midst of their hardships.


During my time volunteering, I have also learned a lot about the Cal Fresh system (formerly known as Food Stamps). The Cal Fresh program is available to anyone, the amount one recieves just depends on your income, expenses and family size. Contrary to beliefs, someone can earn money from a job, be getting unemployment benefits, be recieving general assistance, get child support, be already a part of CalWORKs, get disability, have savings, own retirement accounts, have education savings. All these things do NOT omit someone from recieiving benefits from Cal Fresh. Owning a house or car does not disqualify you either. One must fall into a monthly income limit to qualify ($1,174.00) per one person and it goes up in increments from $406.00 a month per person in the household. Immigrant parents with U.S. citizen children can apply on behalf of their children. One must just have a social security number and meet other guidelines. 


The people who are using food provided by the Food Bank seem to have very little other alternatives, yes they may be able to get assistance from another small organization, but it seems the Food Bank has the most organized and reliable source of food available. Much of the food produced goes to programs at schools in the county where children can take home care packages to provide their family with a meal. Children seem to be the most affected by this organization, without the programs provided by the Food Bank many children would not get a meal. Since my time at the Food Bank, I have made many homeless and begging individuals aware of the programs provided by the Food Bank. Instead of giving money out to these people I have provided them with cards that list a 1-800 number that will connect them with a specialist that can let them know where they can have food delivered to them or walk to a pantry. Then these individuals can save money to focus on finding a place to live rather than having to worry about a meal day to day.


It seems many of the people affiliated with the food bank are very concerned with empowering the people they help, they recognize it is an awkward situation to have to admit that a person needs assistance. The employees here want to make providing food to people as comfortable and least embarrassing as possible. I'd assume many people do not make use of this organization due to pride or embarrassment, so the fact that the volunteers and program directors try to focus on making it a non-threatening and easy exchange is nice. 

Help Wanted????

My search for a volunteer position was kind of a long one, emailed, called and visited TONS of places!! I really tried to find a place that had an Anthropological background or was involved with certain cultural groups. I received little to no response emails back and many of the places I called were not accepting short-term volunteers and I am leaving for Belize in June so I could not commit the six months many of the places required.

Here is an example email I sent out to the many places I contacted...

Ms. XXXXX,

 My name is Kristen and I am a senior Anthropology major at CSUEB. I am looking for a possible service learning internship in the amount for 15 hours for the Spring quarter which starts in April and ends the beginning of June. I am interested in the American Indian Child Resource Center because being an Anthro major I love learning about culture, especially those which I am not familiar with.  I have a pretty open schedule and am available at any time to come in and speak with you further.

Thank you.

Kristen Conzaman

With many of my emails going unanswered I decided to make calls to the places I had already emailed. Let me tell you, very few of them were open during the day, many of the places I had desired to volunteer were after-school programs so their business hours were from like 4-6:30 every day and some on Saturdays.


I finally heard back from the Alameda County Community Food Bank, the volunteer manager, Sheila got right back to me. She invited me to attend a 1 hour volunteer orientation to learn more about what the food bank does and who it supplies food to. When I attended the orientation I learned so many things I had not known before, such as, the food bank supplies nourishment to 1 out of 6 families in Alameda county. Also, the food bank is more of a distribution center to smaller non-profit entities that actually dole out the donations. At the food bank they prepare the packages that are sent out as well as, sort all the donations that come in to Alameda county.


The mission statement of the Alameda County Community Food Bank is:To alleviate hunger by providing nutritious food and nutrition education to people in need, educating the public, and promoting public policies that address hunger and its root causes.


At the Volunteer Orientation I learned about the many opportunities I would have to volunteer at the food bank, I could work their Emergency Food Helpline where members of the community can call in and let us know where they need aid and we tell them the closest place they can go to take advantage of the donated food. I can also do general sorting to load boxes that are distributed to the partner agencies. I can also help arrange food drives in the community and do general office work. The volunteer coordinator Sheila was so appreciative and genuinely excited about the volunteers, she did not seem to care what had brought the people to the food bank to volunteer she was just happy to have us. 


I have yet to have my first day of actual volunteering but I told Sheila to use me wherever she needs me, so I will update soon to let you know how it goes! I am hoping that during my time at the food bank I am able to identify who is able to gain access to the food donated and how information about food stamps reaches the community. I would also like to know why so many people choose not to take advantage of these programs and if there is a way it could be better executed or find out the steps the food bank and the public take to make people aware of these programs. I am also excited to interact with my fellow volunteers, It will be interesting to see who is there and for what reasons. During the tour of the facility I noted the diversity among the volunteers it is nice to see everyone coming together to better the community we live in, I am looking forward to learning from my fellow volunteers and I hope that they can learn from me too!

Introduction

I am starting this blog to explore my experience in an Anthropology in Action class, part of the class requirements is to find a place to volunteer and examine how I can use my anthropological skills I have acquired through my classes in Anthropology to be an effective volunteer. I will report on my experiences as they occur during my volunteer time!