Kean Students Aid in Volunteer service for the Hillside Community Food Bank
By Keyon Gardner | Published November 1, 2022
Many of us are fortunate enough to have three or more meals a day. Though we don’t think about it, there are a great number of children and adults that go days and even weeks without food.
Whether poor or homeless, the number of people that continue their lives without the proper amount of food to consume is quite alarming.
According to the Action Against Hunger Organization, “Around the world, more than enough food is produced to feed the global population—but as many as 828 million people still go hungry. After steadily declining for a decade, world hunger is on the rise, affecting nearly 10 percent of people globally.”
Every day a hungry person is looking for just one meal a day but isn’t even getting just that.
Students at Kean University decided to help volunteer for the Hillsides’ Community Food Bank hosted by the Center for Leadership and Service.
The Community Food Bank of New Jersey has its largest warehouse stationed in Hillside,where volunteers regularly participate in daily duties to help assist in packaging and distributing food.
The Community Food Bank of New Jersey has wonderful staff and associates that helped the Kean students prepare for their role in helping the community.
Troy Turner, the lead and coordinator for the repack area at the warehouse shared his feelings about what he does there and why.
“What I found awesome about this job is the fact we get to package up all this food and we get to feed a lot of people that’s less fortunate and don’t have anything,” Turner said.
Turner’s a man who understands the value of what he does and never takes his position for granted.
“At the end of the day, we can end up on the receiving end of these boxes ourselves,” Turner said. “So I love coming here and working faithfully here for long hours just to see the smiles on people’s faces.”
The Kean University students enjoyed themselves as most of them said they were there for class assignments and wanted to help give back to the less fortunate.
“I feel like it’s only fair I’m giving back what I receive in advance,” Basma Marghany, a Kean student majoring in Early Childhood Education said.
Basma talked about how necessary it was for her as a student at Kean and also being in Union county more than where she is originally from, that it would be fair for her to give back to a community that has people who are less fortunate than others.
Amira, a community food bank of New Jersey warehouse associate, expressed her gratitude, “to have the Kean students come here today was a blessing because they were able to help senior citizens that they’ll never meet. We encourage them to come back because we can’t do this great work without our volunteers. I also encourage them to plant seeds of goodness throughout their life.”
The Community Food Bank of New Jersey gave students a chance to experience volunteering on another level.
Students began to express their feelings on how the event gave them a new perspective as well as it being educating. A sorority group from Rutgers attended the event also to volunteer and assist some Kean students.
“I’m here because it’s my girlfriend’s birthday weekend and she wanted to volunteer so I brought her here and now I’m happy that I get to volunteer as well as see her happy too,” Diego Mendoza, a junior majoring in communications media and film said.
One student described her experience there as motivating and she came here to find her purpose.
Brittney Kennedy, the event coordinator for the Center for Leadership Services and an elementary education major said, “I love giving back and I know the work they do goes into our communities, after volunteering, it’s very fulfilling that we packaged 350 of boxes and I know it’s going to be put to good use.”