Brantley Ingram

This was the first time that I have volunteered with Blazer Kitchen on a day that they take shoppers. Previously I have volunteered on Mondays, where I will help clean, pack spices, or write signs for shoppers. It was really great getting to interact more with the community and just talk to people while showing them the food that was available. It was nice to also get to work with other individuals in my major who were concurrently volunteering with me. I did not realize that some of the produce that Blazer Kitchen distributes is from the garden across the street. That is so great that the garden is starting to aid in feeding members of our community! The Americore interns were so wonderful, helpful, and informative! I am so grateful for them and the work that they are doing on a daily basis! I think the most challenging thing about today was having to leave! It was just so fulfilling and great it was really hard to leave! My biggest take away is that there is such a need for food assistance within our communities, and that is not talked about often enough or loudly enough. I did not expect to see as many people as I did today.

SHARP Orientation

Blazer Kitchen Orientation

This was our final session at Huffman Middle. It was bittersweet. It was so great to hear from these kids about how much they have learned and enjoyed the links up program and it was sad to know it is our last session.

This was a good session. The kids are opening up a lot more than they did in the first couple of sessions. This session we talked about feelings and emotions. We had great conversations that the students took the lead. It was awesome to get to bear witness to their experiences and feelings about that as well as having them share the way they feel about these things. It was a great experience. I feel honored that they trust me enough to share these things with me.

I feel like we had a really great and productive conversation about friendship. We started by asking the children about all the qualities they look for and want in a friend and then we asked about all of the things that make them not want to be friends with someone. Afterwards we asked them if they were the things they wanted in a friend and if they ever did any of the things that would make them not want to be friends with someone. This was a great way to talk about this and helped facilitate a conversation about communication and forgiveness. I feel like sometimes one group is more involved than the other, but today we were able to have both groups show a high level of involvement. It was really great to see the kids grasp that they sometimes expect things from others that they do not always give to others or vice versa. I think informing them of what we will discuss the next time and asking them to think about it leading up to our sessions does a lot to help them feel involved and prepared.