On September 9, 2017, Stockton University held its annual Day of Service.  Through this day of service, students and community members came together to help in four service projects.  These services included bagging food for people in Africa, learning and getting involved in local politics, spreading the word about alcoholism and how to help, and creating crafts for children in the hospital.

My favorite service was bagging food for the people in Africa who do not have enough food to eat.  During this service, my group was broken up into five groups of various sizes to do certain jobs.  In my case, I was one of twelve people sealed the bags of rice.  After about twenty bags or so, I got into a rhythm of completely sealing the bags.  At first, it was difficult to get the bag flat so that I could properly seal the bag.  However, I found that if I folded the bag a certain way, I would have been able to completely seal the bag with no air holes.  Finding this rhythm really helped me seal as many bags as I could.  Our group was able to bag a total of 10,000 bags of food.

It really impacted me because I knew that I was directly helping people in another part of the world.  Each bag we produced could feed either a family of four for one meal or four meals for one person.  After we packaged the 10,000 meals, I wanted to keep going and package more.  I felt complete after helping with this service because I knew I was helping people who were living in very difficult areas and could not support themselves nor their families.  We were able to make a difference in these people’s lives.

Each service had its own unique purpose.  Two of the service projects – bagging food for people in Africa and creating crafts for children in a hospital – were hands-on that directly impacted people in need.  The crafts that we created will help make the children in the hospitals feel less sick.  The purpose was to help them feel better.  The other two service projects – getting involved in local politics and spreading the word about alcoholism – educated me about each.  Even though I am not currently active politics, I know that I can easily be part of it on campus and that Stockton University is a safe place to do so.  Also, I now know how and where to get help and information regarding alcohol poisoning and the like.

I really enjoyed being part of these service projects.  They made me realize how lucky and privileged I am to be living where I am.  I wish that the rest of the world could be as privileged as the United States and myself.  Even though doing these small projects may seem small and pointless, they can and will mean the world to at least one other person in the world.  That is what community service is about, making someone else’s life better through the kindness of your heart.