On December 17th, the Roslyn branch participated in the Island Harvest Food drive from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Holiday Farms.
Island Harvest Food Bank is one of the leading hunger-relief organizations dedicated to eradicating hunger and reducing food waste on Long Island. They collect and distribute food through a variety of systems, such as food drives held by organizations (like AYLUS). From there, the food is used to support those in need, including a wide network of community-based non-profit organizations, as well as individuals, veterans, families, and senior citizens.
We set up a table near the entrance of Holiday Farms so that we could hand out flyers as people entered the grocery shop and collect the food donations when they exited the shop. We printed out flyers to hand out to the shoppers and explained the good cause behind the food drive.
Due to it being a cold day, there were fewer shoppers and we only collected four bags of food, a conglomerate of canned food, mashed potatoes, peanut butter, pasta, cereal, sardines, and various other non-perishable foods. However, we did encounter many kindred souls who were kind enough to donate money, raising a total of over three hundred dollars!
Rejection is both common and inevitable when trying to raise funds or collect donations. While being turned down or told ‘not today’ can be disheartening and frustrating at times, our volunteers learned a valuable lesson about not being discouraged. The shoppers all have their own lives and are not obligated to donate. Instead of feeling dispirited, we learned to keep up our smile, respond with a “that’s okay”, and try again when another shopper approaches. This also made us exponentially more grateful and appreciative of those who kindly stopped to donate or learn more about our cause, something we are more than happy to elaborate on. We also met shoppers who delighted us with their stories of donating to organizations and holding food drives. We were shocked by the amount of people who actively gives to their community and are tremendously thankful for these kindhearted people. This also inspired us to follow in their footsteps and be more giving as well.
Members who participated includes:
Yang Amy Wu (4 hours), Zihan Wang (4 hours), Letao Tao (4 hours), and Michael Zhang (4 hours).
Reporter: Yang Amy Wu
