I took part in a volunteer at Fenway Community Center on March 3rd.
There are two kinds of packs of food. One of them contained 5-7 kinds of vegetables and some masks, and another one includes a back of bread, blueberry, and spinach. I packed the latter one, but if the bag of bread is unsealed, it will be throwed away. Additionally, I delivered some backs to some people’s house. There were various receivers, such as disabled people on foot, young people, older people, and so on. In respond to that, delivers have to devise how to give packs to them because, some people come to the entrance of the building to get food by themselves, but others can’t go up and down stairs easily, so the staffs grasp the situation of each receiver and tell the volunteers whether they need to go to the entrance of the room or not. There were also receivers who came the community center directly. Most of them were older people. The place was also place to interact each other for receivers. I could feel how much I can also be happy by helping people.
The fact that food waste is caused even in the organization that tries to contribute to solve hunger was surprising for me, such as the unsealed bags of bread as I mentioned above.
This research mission was totally related in my research topic. Especially, I learned that there are enough foods to feed hunger all over the world, but those aren’t distributed well, so reducing food loss is so important in the class, so I believe that if the company of the unsealed bags of bread devises the way of sealing the bag, this food waste in this organization won’t be caused. Thus, I think that many people from many aspects should make efforts to reduce food waste as much as possible.
How many days are the bags of food that I delivered for? Is my question that I had after this mission.
I recommend this research mission to anyone who wants to experience any volunteer.
Yuika Sugawara