CONFESSIONS OF A TEEN VOLUNTEER ... i thought the job would be tedious!

On June 3, 2013, I volunteered at the Christian HELP food pantry. I didn’t have any mandatory hours that I needed to complete for my school or a club. I just wanted to help out those in need. I thought that the job would be tedious at first, but I soon realized how important it was. I realized how sad it is that people that live 20 minutes from our school are only supplied with the food from this food pantry. It was shocking to see how much a family is living off of. It made me realize how fortunate I am to have so much food. I certainly will be going back to this food pantry to help out even more. I always denied that there were many people going without food in Florida. When I saw it first hand, it really made an impact. I felt great giving back to the community by volunteering here. I feel really great that I volunteered. This trip has actually caused me to consider donating money to a local food pantry. I use my money on food that I already have enough of and there are people near my school that are eating rice and pasta every single night of the week. This food pantry gave some interesting foods which might make some families week a little bit nicer than normal. Many people look at poor people and think that they did something to become poor. This is wrong. People have gone through many things that you don’t know about and it is extremely hard to dig yourself out of that hole once you get into it.

My school had a poverty day. Everyone was placed randomly into low-income, medium-income, and high-income. Depending on what income you had was your meal. I was placed into the low-income. I had to eat rice and water. It was hard for me to concentrate on my studies for the rest of the day. My stomach was growling in hunger and I was blanking out on my quizzes and tests that day. Kids in our state and going to school like that everyday and it is wrong to accuse them of not trying in school. It makes it extra hard to do well in school when you’re so hungry. This cycle will keep repeating and repeating until someone helps. That is why I was excited to volunteer at the food pantry. I felt great knowing that I put joy into some of these families.

Jason Carter, Casselberry, Florida