Introduction
The Calgary Food Bank is a program that donates food to families in need, and/or individuals facing a crisis. There are two main roles to be played in the Food Bank, the volunteer, and the client.
- The Volunteer- This role is obviously the employees. Except, they aren’t getting paid. The board of staff is mostly made of volunteers. Each volunteer has different positions and shifts, just like an everyday job.
- The Client- This role is played by the customers. They were the cause of Calgary Food Bank. Each client is expected to arrive at the designated time. If they arrive earlier, all they can do is wait. If they arrive later, they may have to return tomorrow, depending on how late they are.
My Volunteer Experience
My first position was Distribution. Distribution is the designated area to pack food into the crates and interact with the clients. It truly is awesome. Although, at first I had no idea what was going on and I just nodded whenever someone spoke to me. Business was fast! Crates were flying past me and I had to run down the aisle to catch up. At times the clients would ask me to switch something, which is completely fine. When I eventually caught on, it was easy. Take the food, place it in the crates, give a smile. Simple! That’s what I thought, until I placed a container of cupcakes into a clients crate, he responded with “Thanks for volunteering.” Quirky, anti-social me, wasn’t expecting someone to respond, so can you guess what I did? I removed the cupcakes and put some apple cinnamon tarts instead. He looked at me like I was crazy, therefore I leaned in. He then repeated what he said and I nervously laughed. Embarrassing.
