Volunteering

 

Doing sort of fun activity is always wanted by everyone, do you? I love that. Well, here’s the picture when I did kind of volunteering activity at COMMUNITY FOOD BANK Tucson. Of course I had fun time there, though at the end I was little tired. Here’s the piece of story:

One day at around 8 a.m. in the morning I and 13 friends of mine headed the place (foodbank) and we served there as volunteers for about 5 hours. As that day was in Ramadan, it felt quite hard for me to work with insufficient carbohydrate and fresh water in my body. This activity was compulsory for all of us (grantees of IELSP) as it was the part of our scholarship program. We were provided van to go there but no food. There were tons of food at Food bank but we couldn’t eat any. You know what? Certainly the food wasn’t for all of us, but for all community members who live in the city in case the emergency thing happens. Yep, that place is belonged to the government of USA (Arizona State) to provide food for people.

In case calamity happens in the city and the people get lost of everything, they still can access food and drink as Food bank will provide them. The catastrophe includes flood, earthquake, fire, pandemic disease etc. By collecting and storing food at food bank, the government can easily distribute to the victims as all is well-managed.

I think that serving for community is sort of fun and challenging for most people in the USA, so it makes sense if Food bank is always open for anyone who intends to serve as a volunteer. The volunteer will not get any payment for his/her work as it is counted as volunteering. I did love my activity there as it meant so much for me - I could help and give something for Tucsonians. I knew that opening and lifting boxes, arranging cans, sorting the food and doing anything were quite tiresome, yet, what I done then was exceptionally awesome. That was my first time serving for community overseas. Everyone was happy to help, so was I.

There are several requirements for you who want to serve at food bank. First, you have to be in a fit condition, unless you’ll get sick afterward. Secondly, you have to register yourself first as it makes the committee easier to make the schedule and everything. Third you have to wear nice and suit outfit, I mean please wear any dress you think it fits you during your work. I highly suggest everyone to wear nice shoes and T shirt as you’ll feel lighter to move around. Fourth, bring some food and drinks for you (don’t steal or eat any food from food bank, you’ll be fined). Oh yap, you may eat and get food in particular room near foodbank, the food is free but the stock is limited, so be swiftly to grab some.

Readers, I am not sure about what’s so called foodbank also exists in this country. But there must be at least one, I would say so. Yeah, it is probably the duty of social department to make it. But thing I wonder the most is that the activity of serving as what I’ve done there in Tucson. It seems to be really interesting if department of social also facilitates people who want to serve at food bank (Indonesian version). Yeah, people can fill their days by doing noble thing to serve others. Besides, people can also donate their money to buy food for the community.
The last, I enjoyed my short journey during my 2-month program in the USA. I could know and understand this world better, I could know what American government does to its citizen, I could know how care the government is to its people. I loved my volunteering!

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