Civic Engagement Paper

The Food Bank was the perfect place to offer our services and it was an honor to participate with my fellow peers on this particular volunteer experience. The staff and volunteers welcomed us with warm, open arms. Due to prior registration through one of our students, those arms were overly outstretched. As a class, we had an opportunity to participate in the packaging of the foods that were being donated to those families in need in the Houston area. It was our job to sort these foods in their designated containers. These containers needed to be separated for items such as canned foods, sweets, bottled drinks, and household items just to name a few. Before the rules of engagement were discussed, the people facilitating the whole movement provided us with general rules we needed to adhere to promote the overall experience. In this beginning, proper instruction was given to all concerning the Do’s and Don’ts of doing such a task. This task required us to be active, and to remain on our feet while adhering to a few rules. Ultimately, they wanted to make sure the process would be a smooth one. There were tons of boxes in the back, where we had to go and retrieve them, separating the contents in the bins. After the bins were filled up to the top, we now transferred them to on movable shelves that stacked bins into the back. This process ran smoothly and we had no problems assisting others. As time progressed, we had opportunities to get to know some of the participants when we stopped for lunch. Many of the volunteers who partook in this experience showed the same amount of willingness to help the community as the University of Houston-Victoria students. We all worked as a team and had a great time doing it.
Engaging in this opportunity, it proves that with team work, those committed to small tasks can make a tremendous benefit as a whole. We demonstrated individual leadership when it came down to figuring out if the items were acceptable for consumption, or if they