{"id":1941,"date":"2019-09-24T17:19:02","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T17:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2019-09-24T17:19:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T17:19:02","slug":"wakefield-22-crooked-creek-food-pantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/2019\/09\/24\/wakefield-22-crooked-creek-food-pantry\/","title":{"rendered":"Wakefield \u201922: Crooked Creek Food Pantry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hunter Wakefield \u201922<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hunter Wakefield \u201922<\/em> \u2014 This summer I have had the pleasure to be working at Crooked Creek Food Pantry in Indianapolis. The pantry serves the residents of Pike township in Marion country and a small portion of Washington township. The location of the pantry has been classified as a food desert, so the need for food is high. With only two\u00a0exceptions there are no grocery stores for miles around the pantry which means many of the nearby residents struggle to get access to food that they need for proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Every day at the pantry brings new challenges as we deal with fluctuating numbers of volunteers day by day. At times we had more volunteers than we knew what to do with and other days we would try to do the work of 2-3 people at once. Volunteers are the most important resource for a nonprofit organization and an inconsistent flow of volunteers is the pantry\u2019s greatest challenge. The leadership here at Crooked Creek food pantry is extraordinary and they helped to make even the hardest days as easy as possible despite the lack of volunteers. The other interns and I have worked to tackle the volunteer problem. To do this we have gone out into the community and contacted local businesses, schools, and churches to create relationships between the pantry and its community. Not only has this experience making connections been invaluable, but we hope that our efforts will bring in more volunteers for the pantry.<\/p>\n

The most powerful observation I\u2019ve made for myself during this internship is that the reasons for why people come to the pantry were often different from what I\u2019d expect. Before working at the pantry, I always assumed people came to food pantries because they couldn\u2019t afford food or didn\u2019t have easy access to it, but I\u2019ve since learned that there is almost always more nuance to each person\u2019s situation. For example, many cannot afford food because of new medical expenses. Another common situation I often see is that retired folk come to pantry because they no longer have enough money in retirement because they have to care for their grandchildren. \u00a0Whatever their reason for coming the guests of the pantry are all in need of the little bit of help that the pantry provides.<\/p>\n

My experience interning at Crooked Creek Food Pantry is one I\u2019m truly happy to have gotten the opportunity to have. I\u2019ve gotten to meet many wonderful volunteers that I would\u2019ve never met otherwise. If this internship is an option for students next summer I will strongly recommend it to anyone who has a love for community service and working with many interesting people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hunter Wakefield \u201922 \u2014 This summer I have had the pleasure to be working at Crooked Creek Food Pantry in Indianapolis. The pantry serves the residents of Pike township in Marion country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-summer-internships","category-global-health"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/09\/IMG_4365-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1943,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions\/1943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/summerinternships\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}