Hey guys! Today, I want to talk about giving back to the community. Recently, I went to an informative meeting that a local food bank, The Second Harvest Food Bank was holding and found out about all the ways that I can help!
At the meeting, I learned the impact that doing minimal things can have! First off, I learned that in my central community almost one fourth of the population does not have a guaranteed meal! This was tremendous news so I decided to take charge and make a change! At the meeting, I learned that stores like Target, WalMart, and other markets that get broken products or products who’s packaging is broken gets donated to the food bank. The food is perfectly safe but us middle class folks like things to look nice while others just want food and don’t care what the packaging looks like. I was really glad that the package that we’ve all put down because it has a rip or isn’t as nice looking as the other packages get donated to a good cause. So all of this food gets donated and the Second Harvest Food Bank basically gets put in a warehouse that is huuuuuge! 
Volunteering there is quite easy. All you have to do is put your email, pick a date, and show up! Click here to volunteer. The first time I volunteered, all I had to do was sort out food. This is extremely easy and is the most crucial part of the process. This experience was extremely heart warming and rewarding. From this, I began to do more. When I was little and I used to live in Romania, my grandmother always cooked extra meals and put them in tupperware and gave them out to people on the streets who couldn’t afford food. I decided to try to do the same. I got a couple of friends from school and decided to start a club. We named the club Food For Thought. We staved to raise money and donate all of the money to No Kid Hungry. 
This organization, as many of us have seen on Food Network, combats childhood hunger in America. According to a recently done poll, 20% of kids in America don’t have secured meals every day. Although world hunger is a huge issue, many times, hunger within our own nation is not emphasized. I thought it was extremely important to help our own nation and friends that we might not even know have problems before we start saving the rest of the world. Thus, we started fundraising and raising money to donate to the organization. At the end of the year, we got to raise over $300. Although I started doing this with my friends, my family and I give back another way. We buy sandwiches and easy to eat foods and put them in ziplock bags and give them out to the homeless people that we see downtown. This is similar to what many churches do when they host meals for the homeless. 
All of these volunteering opportunities that I have grasped and performed have truly made me feel like I am making a difference. If I can take $30 out of my paycheck and donate food or clothes that I don’t ware to help a helpless child or a homeless adult, I will do it in a flash. Some people have more and some have less but we should never take what we have for granted. Thus, I leave you all with a quote “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill
Yours truly,
Ari 🙂
Something To Believe In 
