On Tuesday, July 9th, from 9 am to 1:30 pm, Aylus Roslyn volunteered at NOSH Delivers, a local food bank. Located in Glen Cove, NOSH aims to help families receive fresh groceries who cannot afford them.
When we first arrived, we helped pack orders and fill bags of produce. The group split up and some people packed orders of meat, while the rest packed grocery bags with fresh produce, including corn, apples, oranges and potatoes. After all the orders were packed, we put the meat back in the freezer. Each order of meat was very heavy and required a team effort. Next, we restocked the shelves with more products when they were empty and reorganized the messy shelves and snack bins. Then, we got a large shipment of sweet potatoes. We sorted and packed the sweet potatoes into bins, and the moldy and rotted ones were picked out. We sorted and packed around 7 crates worth of sweet potatoes, which we helped deliver to the produce section. The rest were stored away for the next day. After this, we helped families select goods from the dry foods aisle. Many people could not speak English, so we used Spanish to help communicate. Using simple phrases, we were able to get our point across and overcome language barriers. Finally, as the food pantry began to close, we cleaned up and restocked the pantry for the next day, used plastic scrubbers to scrape off the juices and gunk from the produce off the floor, and wiped down the counters before leaving.
Today we learned that we should not take our food for granted. We also learned about the importance of food banks and how they can impact our community. Many of the people at NOSH were elderly, immigrants or had several children. These families could not afford to buy groceries for their entire families, so they rely on food banks to fill their stomachs. By helping to assist such food banks, we were helping to make a big difference in our community. Therefore, we gained a deep appreciation for food banks and all they do for the community
4.5 hours: Letao Tao, Anita Chen, Katrina Chen, Jolina Wu, Isabelle Tsui, Natalie Tsui
Reporter: Letao Tao
