Abby Hamm

I served at the food pantry getting ready for the Christmas season. With Thanksgiving just happening, the food pantry needed to be restocked; we were working with more limited resources than usual. We were able to hand out Christmas pajamas to the women and Christmas presents to the kids as well. I met many different individuals today who told me about their holidays and what was going on in their lives as we shopped around the pantry. It is always eye-opening to hear about the many different experiences people are having while struggling with food insecurity.

During October, I continued serving with Feed the 479. I met various new families that demonstrated the diversity of what families can look like. I was able to serve a young man who was actually a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, and we were able to relate a lot about what the life of a student is like. It was a reminder that we all have struggles in different ways but are the same in many ways. I also was able to meet several families that had a parent or grandparent with a physical disability. Several families had immigrated from different places came in, and I learned to navigate how to serve others when there is a little language barrier. Another family had little children, so I was able to help entertain the kids while the parents chose the items they wanted!

I enjoyed serving at Feed the 479 with a diverse group of volunteers! I met many volunteers who were in different stages of life than me such as retirement, and these volunteers go weekly to serve. I noticed that the environment was very familial and encouraging; you can tell that these people genuinely love serving and care about each other. The first day I served, I met a variety of people coming for food. I met mothers with their children, people struggling with chronic illness, immigrant families, and students like myself. Feed the 479 is different than most food banks in that it is set up like a grocery store. Our role is to walk around with the family and push their shopping cart as we tell them how many items they can pick out from a certain section based on family size. It creates more autonomy for the client to feel they have a choice and participation. The second time I served, I worked at the mobile pantry where the clients would drive through in their cars, and the volunteers would load bags of pre-prepared groceries for them to take home. This is a more accessible option for some clients.

Small tour group today so did stuff in the hog hangout with some other ambassadors!

Went to an admissions presentation and did stuff in Hog Hangout!

Wrote 25 thank you cards and rolled 25 shirts to makeup for my missed day!

Gave tours to families!

Gave tours!

I helped the CSC prepare to send out their Christmas mailers. This included their Christmas card and support raising envelopes to raise money for the center! While putting together mailers, I was able to make a new friend from the university who was also volunteering. She was a public health major and she wanted to know more about the Children's Safety Center. We were able to talk while packing envelopes, and I got to tell her about my experience serving and learning at CSW. I also got to learn about her goal of being an educator and informer in the community, which I thought was super cool!

I helped to organize the donations brought in by a sorority to the center. The center has a huge storage room compared to its old facility. People donate things like toiletries, food/snacks for kids, toilet paper, paper towels, disinfectant materials, and toys! With the large donation that came in, I was tasked with putting things in the new space. I love organizing so it was actually therapeutic for me to go through all the bags and set up shelves in a way that is accessible for advocates. I think that donations are a great way for the surrounding community to get involved and to be aware of what these helping organizations need. It allows people who typically don't have time to be immersed in a nonprofit to help in their own way.