Shock and awe sums up the experience of volunteering at the Central Texas Food Bank. Using an extremely efficient and streamlined approach to food donation, the food bank felt less like a community effort and more like a factory that just so happened to be used for charitable purposes. There were rules to follow of course, but the process was so organized and easy to follow that all volunteers had to worry about was having a good time; and having a good time we did. With cheesy 80s music blaring through the loud speakers, we worked along other university students to sort, clean, and distribute different food items.
Goofy dance moves and corny jokes followed. The environment the Central Texas Food Bank creates emphases that giving back should be fun. That you can work and enjoy yourself at the same time. We laughed and danced so much that we quickly forgot that the work we were doing had a serious impact. At the end of our time, which seemed to fly by, we were all shocked to find we had helped create over 4500 meals for the community.
It’s easy to appreciate the Central Texas Food Bank for the experience they provided for us, allowing us to bond and play while working on our projects; but on a greater scale we must appreciate the amazing ways they use that work to give back to the community. As the largest hunger relief organization in Central Texas, they have used their experience from over 30 years in the industry to perfect their methods, providing incredible results and fun volunteer experiences. The reason that they have such a loyal volunteer base is because they drive reliable results and make all our efforts feel worthwhile. By partnering with government agencies, charities, local business and other organizations, the Central Texas Food Bank works together, not against, other nonprofits to expand their overall reach. The Food Bank has around 250 partner agencies and provides for over 600 programs in our community alone. They assess each community they work in differently, developing unique solutions based on the problems in that area and deciding what those neighborhoods need most. Some of these programs include: Fresh Food For Families, offering free monthly distributions of fruits and vegetables to low-income families; Healthy Options Program for the Elderly, giving low-income seniors healthy, non-perishable foods; BackPack, graning children in low-income families bags of healthy weekend meals; and Kids Café, assisting children with nutritious food and tutoring activities after school.
As a business, the Central Texas Food Bank does a great job at focusing on their end consumers and tailoring their products and programs to them. They’ve done their research and found the best approach to solving the problem of hunger in America, working with the neighborhoods they provide for to generate the best results. Overall, understanding the small part we got to play in their process just show how truly impressive their work is. If we were able to find so much joy and excitement in just one small facet of the company, I can’t image how rewarding working for such a place would be. If you’re interest here’s a link to their Social Media Marketing Internship application: https://www.centraltexasfoodbank.org/about-us/careers/social-media-marketing-internship
Article by Shannon Peifer