-BackPack Program-
Description:
For my sophomore inspire week I volunteered at Manna Soup Kitchen. The main task we were given was to improve and expand the BackPack program provided to the local schools by Manna since 2010. The Backpack program helps provide food incsecure students and families access to food over the weekend. Most students who are food insecure rely on the lunches and snacks provided by the schools during the school week. Currently Manna is serving only 200 families, but has the ability to serve over 400. During the week, My group went around to 9 different school and interviewed the person in charge of the program at each school (nurses, counselors, front desk agent, social workers) to find out why the Backpack program has been somewhat unsuccessful. We asked questions that included how the program was ran at their school, why they thought the backpack program has been unsuccessful and what they personally thought could help make the program become more successful. After collecting data from each school we then came together as a group to decide the best way to hand this data over to Manna Soup Kitchen. One of the biggest issues we found within this program was the lack of advertisement within the community and the schools themselves. A teammate and I were given the task of creating posters for advertising within the schools. We decided it would be best to target each age group. My teammate created the poster for Middle school through High school ages, and I created a poster targeted towards the younger viewers such as elementary school students .
Manna Soup Kitchen Presentation
Pictures from the week:
Reflection
Manna Soup Kitchen: Backpack Program
Sophomore Inspire Week
Big Takeaways:
Working at Manna Soup Kitchen and focusing on a project such as the Backpack Program taught me a lot about food insecurity that I hadn’t known before. One of the overall biggest takeaways I had from sophomore inspire week, was how big of a problem food insecurity actually is. I knew that it was an issue, but I never thought about what the families who relied on food ,provided by the schools during the school week, did on the weekends. At the beginning of this project I honestly had zero clue what the program included, but by going through the process of trying to help Manna improve this program I became very passionate about helping them expand it to the best of my abilities. One of the biggest lessons that I learned was to overall be more aware of this issue. I think it's really easy to pass by this problem if you’re not the one dealing with it. If all of us can become more aware of this issue, I think we can lower the stigma surrounding food insecurity ,and help students and families who are food insecure feel more comfortable reaching out for help.
Connections between School & Work:
One of the most useful skills I learned during sophomore inspire week was communication skills, but not only that I also learned interview skills and phone manners. One of the main tasks that we struggled with was calling each school and setting up a time to interview the person in charge of the program at each school. Having only three days to try and hit all the schools for an interview ,this task was very frustrating. Some people would be all for it ,others would be very hesitant, or they just wouldn’t answer the phone at all. Having to communicate clearly the task we were trying to complete over the phone was very difficult, but I soon developed the skills to be able to clearly explain the project we were given. I feel I can relate these skills to school, for example when I am conducting a project similar to this, but without the help of my fellow classmates. These skills not only apply to school, but I also believe they relate to the “Real World”. In life you are going to have to go to interviews and conduct interviews, and if you are able to communicate clearly in person and over the phone as well, I feel that sets up overall success
Time Management:
One of the biggest skills I learned and strengthened throughout Sophomore inspire weeks was time management. This has always been a skill I struggled with throughout school, but this week as a team we really had to manage our time correctly given we only had three days to do this project and a lot of work to do. One task in specific that helped me increase this skill, was creating a very detailed schedule for interview times for each school. I had to make a schedule that included enough time for around a 20 minute interview, but also include traveling time to and from each school. The one place time management became very difficult, was when schools would call back after I had already set up the schedule and I would have to try to fit them in, while also giving us enough time to compile all the data at the end of the day. When we were given big chunks of time to complete this project I felt overall more passionate and inspired to work, because I had already invested so much time into the project. I think by giving ourselves a very detailed and specific schedule throughout this project helped us achieve a lot in a short amount of time.
Connections to Youscience
The biggest aptitude of mine I saw during sophomore inspire week was being a collaborative planner. I think the biggest place I saw this being applied was during the overall creation of the schedule. There were times where we did have to move around the schedule in order for it to fit with the schools schedule better ,and or ours. Starting out the schedule was really hard because we hadn't originally had specific slots for interviews. I then created a schedule that had twenty minute interview slots with a twenty minute travel time, and this helped improve our overall time management and organizational aspects of the project. Overall I'm fairly surprised by how much my Youscience results came through during sophomore inspire week. Reflecting on it now I think they came out alot more than they ever have, such as being a double checker, space planner, and a concentrated focuser.
Advice for future students
Overall advice I would have for incoming students would be, do what you want to do, not what your friends are doing. You will never truly be able to see the aspects of your true passions come through if you're doing something you’re not interested in or if you’re distracted by your friends. I would also tell you not to be afraid to go outside your comfort zone a little bit. I think by putting yourself in a vulnerable spot you are giving yourself the space where you can truly grow as a human, and you never are going to be able to do that if you continue to stay within the box. Don’t be afraid to take a leadership role. This is something I personally have struggled with, but once I did it once I wanted to continue to do it. The biggest thing that I learned about myself during sophomore inspire weeks, is that I have the ability to become a leader.