February 2008 Archives

Weekly Project Journal

Each week of the project, student must submit a project journal entry. The journal entry consists of three parts:

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

Essentially, I did the same thing I always did: go to site, sign in clients, and organize files when there are lulls or low points; what I do more of really depends on the day and the weather. Typically, the most clients come towards the beginning/middle of the month - weather dependent. Since about ¾ of the clients are senior citizens, they will not drive in bad weather. So Wednesday, for example, was super busy - and Thursday (because it had snowed the night before and roads weren't the best) it was incredibly slow (I actually left 30 minutes early because no one was coming).

However, with all these lulls, I was able to finish cleaning out the files! Yeah!

I did, however, spend a substantial amount of time this week preparing outlines for the chapters.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

I really didn't learn that much from site this week. Like I said, it was rather slow. It's always interesting to watch the different people, with their different backgrounds and different attitudes, but I didn't observe anything new this week that I haven't already written about.

Learned information regarding my project in doing comprehensive outlines - how I want to lay final chapters out and the main points I want to get across.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would give myself an A. I went on-site and also did the reached my goal in completing detailed outlines for chapters 3-6 - thereby accomplishing objectives of project and personal.

Weekly Project Journal

Each week of the project, student must submit a project journal entry. The journal entry consists of three parts:

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

This week (again) I worked at the desk and did file organization. Two things that were different though and worth mentioning.

First, since I work Wednesdays' and Thursdays' this semester (instead of Wednesdays' and Fridays' like I did last semester) I work with different volunteers, who run things a bit differently. The new volunteers that I work with put together a cardboard box of greens, or goodies, or bread, (or other extra fun commodities) and puts them in the room for the people to pick out for themselves. Then, after they get picked through, he puts more out. This way, he can keep on eye on one person taking way more than they need and not leaving any for anybody else and also put out a good variety while letting people pick for themselves and take what they want.

Second, I encountered a sad story today. A senior woman was signing in today, and when I asked her how she was, she said it was a hard month: when I looked up she had burst into tears! I felt so bad for her - she said it was because her medicine had gone up $97 and this was the only food that she'd be getting for the entire month (p.s. this is a supplemental food program - not a substitute). When I told the volunteer after she had left, he said there was a man who had come in a couple weeks before who said he had only had candy bars for a week because there was no food in the house. Those stories make me sad

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

Well, my question about nutrition got solidified. Some of these people look like they eat a lot (overweight) but it's really because they don't eat healthy - they eat cheap, unhealthy food (like candy). In addition, how much people rely on the program and for how long was also solidified - since they have a fixed income, they stay on it, and some of them desperately need it. About myself: I feel bad when someone is crying and there is nothing I can do. I talked to my mom, whose going to talk go my dad (a physician) who says there are a lot of sites and organizations that people who have really expensive medications should know about because they could get them for cheaper (i.e. merely switching prescriptions from Cub to Wal-Mart; i.e. $34 to $4). So hopefully I'll get that information and pass it on.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would give myself an A- this week. I think I'm learning and solidifying things in my head about the project and personal objectives. However, I'm not nearly as far on the chapters as I would like to be - so I need to get working on that this weekend...but I'm not sure if it's going to happen. Hence, a minus.

Weekly Project Journal

Each week of the project, student must submit a project journal entry. The journal entry consists of three parts:

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

Well, I did less project hours this past week, but the hours spent working on project were more diverse. I met with Professor Rock for about 30 minutes just to go over the remaining chapters and get some direction on where I should be going and bounce some general ideas back and forth to see if I was on the right track. In addition, I conducted two more interviews at Second Harvest Heartland (one from the woman who is manages all the programs [like the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, backpack program, etc] and one from the man who is the VP of the food bank operations [transportations, ware house, etc]). In addition, I went on-site and did regular desk work and file organization - I did not go two days this week due to the frigid temperatures and my fear of my car stalling.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

I'm discovering how helpful interviewing is; after working there for awhile I have a general picture of what goes on and can ask questions that are sometimes specific, but also in a much more comprehensive, thereby pulling everything together in order to see trends and results from the people who work there and know the answers. Plus, their opinions are really valuable and by personal communication the information that they relate to me stays in my head for much longer.

From the interviews, I learned some more interesting things about the problem of hunger and the project itself:
• Food received from manufactures mistakes is where they get a lot of their food - in order to meet the increasing demand, that's where they see themselves as getting more food from.
• It is individuals who give 80% of SHH donations
• Are partners with organizations that work to eliminate poverty
• Some people/organizations really rely on programs - others have help from elsewhere
• Every state, county, and parish is covered by the national network that SHH is a part of - they're pretty much it.
o Others do great work, but don't have the reach or the exposure.
• Differences between SHH and other federally funded programs/national networks
• The reasons why people work in non-profit
• Issue of impossibility of really ever "eradicating" hunger
o Limitations to how much they can address and what they can do with funds and programs - in addition to the problem of poverty which is the root cause of hunger

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would give myself around a B. I went on-site and conducted interviews and such, but I really needed to start getting some outlines written for the last chapters. Sadly, just haven't found the time - but that needs to be taken care of soon. I would like to be able to do a good job on this last part so I can actually really learn something as opposed to just working on it to get it done - it's too good of a project for that.