Sometimes, all it takes is one person or one place to make an everlasting impact. That one moment or meeting that can be pivotal or change your mindset completely. For me, Midwest Food bank and their welcoming staff further ignited my passion for volunteering. The expansive warehouse with food stacked from the floor to ceiling changed me. The idea that this large amount food was needed just to feed a small amount of the Midwest area floored me. I had always grown up a community where my friends and the people I knew had never gone through something like this. Honestly, I was ignorant. I knew there was a problem, but I had not realized there was such a need present in my community. On my first day there after a morning of volunteering, they offered me lunch. The bowl of vegetable soup that was placed before me shocked me; I was practically a stranger to them, and they were offering me their food. As I sat down at one of their many wooden lunch tables, I looked to the wall, and it all suddenly made sense. The bible verse Matthew 25:35 was scrolled out artfully on the wall: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me”. I knew right then and there I had found somewhere I belonged, a communiy, a home. The food bank was not just a place or a business for people; it was a community. My first experience volunteering there was over a year ago, and I think about it every time I volunteer there today.
To me, volunteering is not an obligation – it gives me a sense of purpose. I volunteer because I feel I am doing a service to society. I feel it is my responsibility to give back. The reward and the fulfillment of knowing I am helping put food on someone’s table is worth it. Working at the food bank makes me feel like I am making an impact on my community, on the world, one pallet of food at a time. I pattern my life by trying to serve the community I am a part of now and in the future.
While I may learn how to manage money or learn other financial concepts as a business major, it all means nothing if I cannot use that knowledge and the money I earn to serve and help others. The things I will learn through my continuing education and through my future career will allow me to change lives. My learning comes with a responsibility to use my education to serve others.
I once had a speaker tell me that true servant-hearted volunteering is giving up what you need, like when the bowl of vegetable soup was placed before me. Midwest Food Bank gave me food when their whole purpose is to collect food for those who cannot provide it for themselves, and that made all the difference.
-JG
The Rind 