Community Service Narrative
I went down to St. Mary’s Food Bank, an organization that collects packaged non-perishable foods and distributes the food to families in need. St. Mary’s has several dozen volunteers that help out each day, though there were a few people that were there for court ordered community service. My first day there was November 6 I had no Idea what we would be doing. Initially I was amazed by the amount of food they had, it was a giant warehouse filled with food, much like Costco, except the food is not for sale. As soon as we got there the assembly line rollers were brought out; about 30 people worked each assembly line, form folding boxed to taping up the final product. I spent about 3 hours in the front of the line packing apple juice into a box then passing it on down to the next station. After we were finished we had a 15 minute break while they counted the boxes and packed the palates of food away in trucks. While we were waiting we double bagged brown paper bags donated by a grocery store. We used the bags to package food in later on. When the cont came in it was at over 2,400 pounds of food, enough to feed over 600 families. We then swept the floors before setting up again. The second time around I ended up checking crates that once held tomatoes for any rotten residue, destroying the dirty boxes and saving the clean ones, where we passed them along to the assembly line. When we were finished with the tomato boxes we started using folding flat boxes; we opened them up taped the boxes together and passed them along the assembly line. Finally we swept the floors once more only this time we got to wear hard hats because we were sweeping under the shelves. The second time I went was November 26, this time; I worked the assembly line for both shifts, at first packaging cereal boxes and then canned vegetables.
Thats us Double bagging in the break room
More double bagging
A little portion of our assembly line, our course I got cropped out of the photo, I'm to the right of Sarah.
If you look closely you can see me behind Sarah, her head is in the way...
Hard hats
Civic Duty Summative
As functioning citizens it is our responsibility to participate in certain duties; voting, participating politically, defending our constitution, cooperating when called upon to serve as in a jury, and taking time out of our lives to go and serve for the purpose of simply bettering our community are all common occurrences of everyday civic duties. Without responsible citizens, our conditions as a citizen would not be to the standard we hold it too.
Voting is the simplest way to effectively contribute to society. By not voting, one gives away their ability to influence government policies and their opinion goes unaccounted for. Local elections are taken for granted and aren’t given enough though by residents. School boards are a great example, children are the future or the world, they need to be education and well equipped to run the world; the members of a school board should be voted on carefully (Leidy, 2002). A board member who doesn’t even know that political science is the same thing as government, probably isn’t a good choice as board member to run a school district. Imagine for a second what it would be like if our ability to vote wasn’t there; the government wouldn’t care about the people; it would serve only its own agenda.
One of the most fundamental beliefs that set America apart from the world at the time it was founded was that when accused of a crime, one is innocent until proven guilty. In America the judiciary system is what protects that belief; it is what keeps us from being punished for crimes we did not commit. In the middle east Sharia law is the opposite, there one is guilty unless they can prove their innocence, and as a result everyday people’s hands are cut off for crimes of shoplifting. Our rights are protected by a legal process, one in which a judge and jury is critical to the functionally; our liberties are placed in the hand of this system and it is our duty to participate in this system (Southern District of New York).
Taxes are required by the government to perform any services, it is the responsibility of us to pay for the necessary programs. Originally, the programs deemed necessary were much more limited, it consisted of national defense, regulation of commerce and few other basic operations that only a government could operate. Today, the meaning of necessary taxes has changed; however, the basics are still in place and it is our responsibility to fund them.
Community service and philanthropic efforts are crucial to helping those who are truly in need. Without these efforts millions of people would be dead right now. Because of donations and the work of volunteers, people in third world countries in Africa and South America have drinking water that doesn’t threaten to kill them, those who have found themselves with =out a job and without a home are able to find a warm place to sleep at night and a little food to fill them up. Compulsory welfare isn’t very effective, but charities and nonprofit organizations have done wonders for society, without them, the world would be a darker place. People who take on the responsibility of community service do so because they want to give back to the community and they find it rewarding to improve their community (Smith, 2010).
Community Service Analysis
Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” This holds true to people no matter where they live or what government they live under. There are always people who need help; volunteering time is a way to give back to the community that gives so much to its people. Because of people who dedicate their time and money to improving their community, society as a whole has improved. People like Mother Theresa who went even further than the average person serve as a model for civic duty. Today, In a society obsessed with speed, people get caught up in their jobs and responsibilities with their family; unfortunately only such a small portion of people take time to give back. When I was working at St. Mary’s, I met a very interesting woman, who I think can only be described with the word “animated. “ She was one of the most interesting characters I have met, and she had quite the mouth on her, but as I started talking to her she told me that ever month she takes the time to go down and spend an entire day doing community service. Imagine if even a fraction of the United States volunteered time like she did, the world would be such a better place.
When I went to St. Mary’s I helped package food for hundreds of families, because of the time that I spent volunteering another handful of people don’t have to worry about how they are going to feed their children. In doing so I gave back to my community, costing me nothing but a few hours out of my day. I realized that many more people volunteer than I had previously believed; the first day I went, the guy at the front desk told us that they were pretty much full on labor. What is so amazing about that is the fact that nearly all of the people there were volunteers; maybe only 2 or 3 were there for court ordered community service.
Community service is crucial to society because it provides the necessary boost to the welfare of humans that can only be made possibly through the dedication of volunteers. We are in pretty bad economic times right now; many people have lost jobs, and are relying upon the help of others. Community service is able to provide that help in a way that the government, policies and taxes can’t. When people do good for their community by choice, the result is something much more positive than the government’s efforts to help out.
