Service Learning- Fish Food Bank

For my service learning project I choose Fish Food Bank. It's mission is to distribute food to needy people. It does this by donation from individuals and companies. Companies like Safeway donate soon to expire or extra food. The population we seemed to be servicing was the elderly and often mothers of large families. A lot of the people who came in spoke only Spanish. I thought I was going to be unpacking food and working in the warehouse area. But when we got there it was full, so they trained us to be "runners". The job was very interesting. We stood with small shopping carts and waited for costumers to come to us after waiting in line and filling out information, including showing ID. When they came to us, we would collect a number card (size of family) and sometimes a colorful card (note baby). We then let them have the cart and followed in front of them telling them how much they were allowed depending on the number on the card. I interacted with a lot of people who had large family size, many who brought children with them. I enjoyed my work, each person who came it was very understanding and thankful. I tried to make as much conversation as i could, so they were more comfortable. One lady in particular asked for my name and introduced herself and thanked me and said I was sweet. I enjoyed all my costumers, none made me uncomfortable, because at first I did fear that I would mess up and tell them something incorrectly, but after the first 15 min, all my fears quickly faded. Some things were hard though. I didn't like every volunteer's attitude, some I felt were nicer to some but not to others. I think its important especially in volunteer situations to give each person respect and dignity. I'm looking forward to seeing what this Friday brings. I hope I'm able to make people who come in experience there a positive one.