Service Learning 2005 Second Harvest Food Bank And Habitat for Humanity International

Second Harvest Food Bank America's Second Harvest is the largest Hunger Relief organization in the world. This network annually provides billions of pounds of food to over 31 million hungry families each year. America's Second Harvest of South Georgia hosts programs like The Valdosta Food Bank, Rescue Valdosta, Kids Cafe', The Community Soup Kitchen, Manna Truck, and the Community Kitchens Program. Through all of these programs, Second Harvest is fighting to end hunger in their region. They take all kinds of donations and work with over 500 grocers and food production companies. Anyone can volunteer on any day to work in the food bank in Valdosta. They always are very welcoming to volunteers and can always use the help. The Mission of Second Harvest: The mission of America's Second Harvest of South Georgia, Inc. is to end hunger in South Georgia. To create a means to easily and affordably access food for every person in South Georgia, To feed children and provide a safe environment for children to grow and learn, To provide the means to rescue and safely store all donated excess food in our region, and To ensure that every community that relies on the services of America's Second Harvest of South Georgia, Inc. is adequately assisted in the fight against hunger.

Hard at Work… For my service learning, I worked at Second Harvest Food Bank quite a bit. I worked in several different areas of the warehouse doing different tasks. One day, I was unpacking and inspecting cans and boxes of goods to clean and repackage into their designated boxes. Another day, I worked in the kitchen area helping an employee clean up and organize. The last day I worked at the Food Bank, I was stocking their small store located in the front of the warehouse. I unpacked a lot of boxes of goods that I had to bring from the back. After working, I felt very good about myself and that I had accomplished something to help out other people in need. Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures of my work here! I would recommend Second Harvest to anyone who is looking to volunteer in their community. If anyone is interested, below are the address, number and website to the food bank: America's Second Harvest of South Georgia 1411 Harbin Circle Valdosta, GA

Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, Christian housing ministry. HFHI seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. It also brings volunteers and communities together to build affordable, decent housing. Habitat has built more than 175,000 houses around the world, providing more than 750,000 people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter. Through volunteer labor and donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and rehabilitates simple, decent houses with the help of the homeowner (partner) families. Habitat houses are sold to partner families at no profit, financed with affordable, no-interest loans. The homeowners' monthly mortgage payments are used to build still more Habitat houses. Habitat is not a giveaway program. In addition to a down payment and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor -- sweat equity -- into building their Habitat house and the houses of others. Habitat for Humanity International 121 Habitat Street Americus, GA (229)

Construction Work… I never really pictured myself as a construction worker, but I actually loved working with Habitat for Humanity! Some of the girls from the dorm and I all decided to go together! We were kept busy every day we were there and we constructed a whole house in just one week!! Some of the work that I did included cleaning up the yard, keeping the interior of the house neat during the build, putting up the frame of the house, helping nailing down the roof boards and then putting on shingles and the list goes on and on! Everyone I met at the build site was very nice and helpful! I would recommend Habitat for Humanity to anyone who wants to volunteer in their community. Here’s Kim and I posing on the roof with our hammers!!

What I Learned… Through my service learning, I learned that helping others is not just something that someone should do just because it’s nice, but I also learned that helping others is something I want to do and love doing. All of my work gave me a great feeling about myself and what I had accomplished. I am glad that Dr. Tillman assigned our class to do the service learning project, because without it I probably never would have gone to work for either Second Harvest or Habitat for Humanity. Here I am helping nail down part of the roof. I felt so handy with my tool belt!!

More Pictures!! Kim and I posing for the camera on our ladder! Here I am sweeping out the house during the build.

More Pictures…Continued! Here I am helping nail down the shingles on the roof!