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 3rd, 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!!!
