Service during Spring Break
I spent my break in Bloomington, Indiana on a service trip with a group of twelve amazing people. Vanderbilt Alternative Spring Break (ASB) organizes service trips across the United States for over 300 students. My site, Happy Together, dealt with food insecurity in Bloomington. We got to work at Pantry 279, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, Monroe Community Kitchen and Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
At Pantry 279, we met several amazing people including Cindy, who worked tirelessly to continue the organizations one of her daughters started, and Juanita, a little old lady who had an unending source of energy. Our days at Pantry 279 consisted of serving guests, restocking and reorganizing shelves, repackaging food and preparing donation boxes. At Mother Hubbard’s, we heard about their advocacy program as well as how they battled food insecurity in a healthy and self-sustainable way. At Monroe Community Kitchen, we saw the inner workings of a food kitchen. We spent a day at Hoosier Hills Food Bank learning about how food is collected and distributed to the various food pantries and kitchens in Bloomington. The unique part of ASB was that after each service day we reflected on what we had observed at each organization. Reflecting on our experiences brought us closer to becoming active citizens who dedicate their lives to service of others. Besides learning about these organizations committed to serving others and what we could do to help, we learned a lot about each other. It was a week of loud laughter, wide smiles, bad ASB puns, the best kind of stress and warm cinnamon roll hugs. I’m grateful I got the chance to go on this trip. If you have any questions about my experience with ASB, feel free to email me at chidiogo.c.nwakoby@vanderbilt.edu.