Ethnography of Food Pantry - Personal Statement Example

The birds sang their early morning songs welcoming another chilly day. I opened my eyes feeling lazy and unwilling to get out of the bed, after all we were still on holiday, and I had plans to go and play basketball later in the day with my best friend James. It was clear that I had no plans for my morning hours. A little more sleep would do, I said to myself. Before I could get myself to sleep, my mobile phone rang irritatingly. It was Charles, one of the group members we were carrying out a research project with on food pantry. Suddenly it all clicked in my mind, and my eyes went straight to the calendar which was hanging lazily on my wall. It was the 24th of March, and we had an appointment with one of the leading food pantry in our locality. We wanted to observe and research about a number of things which were going on there. Charles mumbled a total of twenty minutes as a given allowance, as he sensed that I was still in bed. In about fifteen minutes, I had already arrived at Angel’s coffee shop where we were all supposed to meet before we officially left for the appointment which was in the next two hours. You could tell from the anxiety on people’s faces that nobody wanted to be late. After a short meeting headed by our group supervisor, Ernest, we headed one of our school vans and in about ten minutes, we had our van parked in front of “St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry” where we were meant to visit. I loved the color on the billboard; blue my favorite color ever since I was a toddler. I have spent over fifteen years in America, and I have been seeing this building as long as I can remember, but I have never taken my time to find out what really happens at the food pantry organization and how it works. I had a very mutual and exciting feeling as I walked in the organization. An exciting sensation kept tickling down my spine every time the thought of being a volunteer rang in my mind. My eyes fell on a number of benches and on them were several goods. This confirmed my happy feeling. There was a man who later introduced himself to us as Bob, who couldn’t keep his eyes off us. Surprisingly, he was the one who was waiting for us. As we approached, his firm stare turned into a soothing smile which made people’s hearts to feel at ease whenever we were with him. We introduced ourselves and immediately embarked on what we had come to do in the food pantry. It was a good experience seeing so many people young and old working together for the good of all in the working area. An equal amount of different foods were being in plastic bags. At the end of the line, there was a big heap of already packed foods waiting for the clients to come and pick them up. The different types of foods included pasta, tomato sauce, canned corn, vegetables, Mac-and-cheese and chocolates. There was no trace of protein in the packages. As we made our way into different rooms of the pantry foods, we came into the store room where there was a bid heap of donated food. He said that they had stayed there for long, and nobody wanted them. This was really surprising. We were then taken to a room with different sizes of fridges and in it was meat, both white and red. He requested two of us to remain behind so that they could pack the chicken in the polythene bags as it is done when packing food for the food pantry clients. Kevin and Alex volunteered to remain and do the tedious assignment. Kevin later confessed how frozen his hands felt when he was handling the meat. On the further corner was another fridge full of red meat and bread. They had been donated by different donors including organization and had come with different packages. Bob wanted them to have a similar type of package and requested three of us to work on it. I thought this was the place. The group supervisor, Ernest, Charles and I found ourselves working together. We were putting two packs of meat in every plastic bag. It seemed to be very easy to be a volunteer. I must confess that it was a little bit cold but what I was doing was very important and nothing had ever made me feel so useful in life. It took roughly an hour and we were all through with the assignment we were told to do. We washed our hands and were given a tumbler of sizzling hot coffee which we used to warm our freezing nerves as we headed for the front desk. Bob was kind enough to take as through what really goes on at the pantry house. The food that was being packaged on that day was supposed to be distributed in the following three days. Zhao, one of the group members could not resist asking why there was an adjacent building to the food pantry that had the words “jobs Center” written on it. It was where clients were employed. The packed food was going to be given to big families with little or nothing at all to feed on. ANALYSIS According to (Hanc), there are some communities that have been side lined in development due to geographical factors. These communities are made up of refugees and immigrants. Their main problem is lack of access to supermarkets where they can buy food from leaving alone the fact that they do not have the cash. They end up lacking access to fresh produce which is healthy. Another problem in this area is that there is overpopulation and many children are affected due to lack enough and proper food to feed on. According to (Heida) on the other hand argues that a food pantry is an organization mostly an NGO that donates food to the poor. These organizations, purchase, receive, store and distribute food. Some of the pantries receive support from the government in the USA in form of the IRS. They are also involved in providing training on skilled jobs and free clothing to people who are disadvantaged economically. A food pantry is characterized by presence of many refrigerators and shelves where the food is stored. Grants are given to these organizations so that they can pay themselves and enhance efficiency in these organizations. CONCLUSION According to (Heida), a food bank, food pantry, soup kitchen, kid’s cafe and America’s Second Harvest are terms that have been used by most American citizens to refer to food distribution centers. It should be noted that these terms have very different meaning when applied. A food bank is in form of a big ware house where groceries are taken to. These groceries and other items are then distributed to people who need them. In food pantry, all the workers are volunteers. Some pantries are stationed in churches as a ministry. Food pantries rely on food banks to give them fresh produce, dairy products meat and many others. Feeding the poor is a responsibility that has been taken by all these organizations and they are actually doing a good job. Works cited Bivens, Rodney. Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. 2010. Print. Wise Geek. What is food pantry? Web. 27 April 2012. Hanc, John. The New York Times. 2011. Web. 27 April 2012. Heida, Jeanne. What are the Differences between a Food Pantry and a Food Bank? 2007. Web. 27 April 2012. Read More