Sharing the Harvest

The following was written by Kevon Michael Armstrong,a junior Psychology and Social Work major at Miami University Hamilton about his experience with Shared Harvest Foodbank!                                                                   

Kevon & Shared Harvest Volunteer

For the past two weeks, I have been volunteering at Shared Harvest Foodbank, in Fairfield Ohio. Shared Harvest is a foodbank, not to be confused with a food pantry. A foodbank is the storehouse for millions of pounds of food and other products that go out to the community. A food pantry functions as the arms that reach out to that community directly; as opposed to a foodbank, who has the ability to reach an entire county. Shared Harvest actually serves and distributes food to the local pantries or shelters in Butler, Warren, Preble, Darke, and Miami counties. Shared Harvest’s mission: is to find, rescue, and distribute food to people living in poverty through an efficient network uniting the public and private sectors, and to raise awareness of the impact of poverty.

Although I have been to Shared Harvest twice before, these past two weeks have been like the icing on a cake for me. Working for Connect2Complete and the Center for Civic Engagement at Miami Hamilton, has helped me to become more aware of the different troubles that plague not only the Hamilton community; but the general populous as well. Before my time at Miami, I was aware that some people are homeless, some people are starving, and a lot of people live in poverty. It took me serving at local non-profits like Shared Harvest, to truly empathize and sympathize with those people, who are truly in need. Being a young man who grew up privileged, I was aware of social issues, but I did not care because I usually had everything I wanted. I didn’t ever have to worry about my next meal or where I was going to lay my head at night; thankfully because of my mother’s hard work. Living this way for the majority of my life makes me feel blessed, but I feel guilty when thinking of all those families who were forced to go to bed hungry. This thought is actually what motivated me to participate in the Sustained Service Scholar (volunteer) program, which led me to Shared Harvest.

Ben Powers & Shared Harvest Volunteer

Now that I am a proud Miami Hamilton Student, I am thankful to be a part of the Sustained Service Scholar program, because I have been able to learn from Ben Powers. Ben Powers is the Community Engagement Manager at Shared Harvest Foodbank, and he is one of the most compassionate people I have ever met. The first day I walked into Shared Harvest, which was June 3^rd, 2015 in case any of you are wondering; Ben immediately began acting as a mentor to me. Being that I never had a mentor before in my life, it was shocking that he was interested in teaching me about Shared Harvest, and the impoverished people living in our community. Ben also wanted to utilize and enhance the skills I already have, which is another reason Ben and Shared Harvest are so cool.

If you have volunteered before, sometimes the process can be unorganized; and you may have even felt like you weren’t helping the community at all. In my own past experience with volunteerism, I have loathed volunteering, because I never felt like I was making a difference. I felt as if I had not helped one single person, let alone the different communities that I belonged too; which usually kept me away from Miami Hamilton’s Day of Service because I struggled to see the difference we were making. Each month Miami Hamilton chooses a local non-profit to volunteer at. Members of the community, Miami faculty, and Miami students, are all encouraged to participate on these special days. As of last week, I no longer dread the idea of not being able to truly help people, because I see how much work the staff and volunteers at Shared Harvest put in every day. I am able to literally walk in the door, walk into the warehouse, and immediately begin working, because Ben Powers has everything prepared for us all each day. 

The way Ben and Shared Harvest run their facility each day is commendable, because the people care about helping others, but they also care about the volunteer’s experience as well. Each day, each project is already set up as I mentioned before. This is unlike some of the other organizations I have volunteered at, because of how well organized Shared Harvest is. For example, there is a program at Shared Harvest called the backpack program. This program is meant to alleviate hunger that some children experience, by providing them with food for the weekend. Personally, I had never thought about what impoverished children who were starving during the week ate over the weekend. Needless to say, if they are living in poverty and are barely fed throughout the week, Shared Harvest’s backpack program is a literal lifesaver for those kids. Over the past two weeks, the other volunteers and I have been packing boxes of various types of food. The boxes will be shipped to the elderly, allowing them to enjoy at least a month’s worth of food. Now that our team has completed that particular goal, we were able to start another assembly line for boxed food, which is also being sent to the elderly who are in need.

Ben Powers is usually quite busy each week at Shared Harvest as one can infer, but he still manages to run multiple group volunteer experiences; multiple times throughout the week. As my mentor, Ben has been working to educate me in every way possible, and he also began preparing me to lead my own group of volunteers. Today, I successfully led two separate groups of volunteers, and I can honestly say I felt like I was on top of the world. The fact that Ben and the other authority figures at Shared Harvest trusted me enough to lead those two groups today, definitely made me feel like I was making a difference, but also made me feel like I was a part of the Shared Harvest family. Being that I have experience leading public forums and other group activities, I wasn’t too terrified.

The first group was more of a pair, and the couple were so funny, that the time flew by. However, once the second group of volunteers came, the time slowed down, but productivity sped up. By the end of the day, we successfully packed 400+ boxes of food that also went to the elderly in need. It seemed like Shared Harvest was a madhouse during this group, because everyone was constantly doing something or moving, and I and other volunteers, had to make sure all of the supplies were continuously replenished. Energetic, fun, and sweaty, is the best way I can describe this experience. As busy as we were, we all deeply enjoyed working together on that particular task. It was fun and we were serving our community, therefore I suggest you all volunteer at Shared Harvest at least once, so that you can also experience the joys of volunteering at a well-organized non-profit. After today, which was the longest day for me thus far, I may be exhausted, but I can’t stop smiling because I know I made a difference in a lot of people’s lives today! Thank you Shared Harvest for showing me that I can make a difference in my community, and thank you Ben for being such a great leader! If you are interested in making a difference, I recommend volunteering at Shared Harvest Foodbank immediately. You will definitely not be disappointed!!!