Thursday 7/14 1-4 pm: On my first day at Community Servings, I was given the job of packaging the meat box. Before that, we participated in orientation as first-time service volunteers, and we were told a series of instructions to ensure a safe and hygienic working environment, such as we must feel 100% comfortable while working; wear long-sleeved clothes and long pants; and wear masks at all times. On my first day of work, I was told to bring down each layer of food from the shelves, manage it, and put it into the packing machine one by one. It was a very tiring and careful job. Because the machine was running fast after it was turned on, it was possible to cut my hands if I was not careful. I worked with a old lady, I was responsible for packing and she was responsible for labeling the packed meal boxes. I had a short chat with her in the end of the job. I learned that she also used to work at Northeastern University and was the teacher in charge of Co Op instruction. This was a surprise to me! She also asked me some questions about my studies, internship, and life in the US.
Wednesday 7/20 4-7pm: In the first half of the second service experience, I chopped celery with three other people. In the second half, I worked with another girl to arrange the marinated chicken breasts neatly on a steel plate. I think this day of volunteering was the most enjoyable day for me. I kept talking with the other two people who cut the celery together. We shared about where we were from, why we came to work here,and our hobbies etc. One of the guys was from Boston and studied in New York. The other girl was from Philadelphia and had just recently moved to Boston to find a job. I was surprised to know that this girl's major was media like mine, and she was also born in China. But she didn't speak any Chinese. I shared with her about China now, and she told me that she would really like to have the opportunity to visit China after the epidemic is over. Because we kept talking during work, that day went by very fast and I had a lot of fun.
Thursday 7/28 4-7pm: My job this day was to serve dishes including frozen peas, chicken pie with mushrooms, and chia seed rice. The chia seed rice needed to be kept to about 3-ounce, the chicken mushroom pie needed to be divided into 8 small pieces evenly for each whole piece, and the frozen peas were a flat spoonful. On this day, I started to pay attention to the food combinations in each meal box and the ingredients in each dish. I was joined by a community services employee and a volunteer. I asked the employee about why each meal box was prepared the way it was. The answer was that he was not sure what he could or could not eat for any specific illness. These are all prepared by a special dietitian. Each meal has a meal mix for each different disease to ensure that the patients are healthy and have a balanced response. Therefore, after I went home and looked up some dietary considerations about diseases, I learned that, for example, diabetics should not eat foods that tend to raise blood fats, including cream and fatty meat, in addition to sugar. Or patients with HPV are very prone to loss of appetite and nausea, so they need to eat foods that are lower in fat and higher in protein, such as fish and soy products.
Thursday 8/4 1-4pm: In this time of service learning session, Tee and I cut up the eggplant and chicken together. Two other volunteers were responsible for peeling the eggplant, and then Tee and I cut the eggplant into pieces. At the beginning, when I got the peeled eggplant, I noticed that some of the eggplant became very dark and soft. I was worried that the eggplants might have gone bad, so I asked the staff there if they could still be used. The answer was that the eggplants were probably oxidized because they had been stored for a long time after peeling, and were only slightly unfresh, but could be eaten normally after being cooked. I was very happy that they were patient and explained to me about the condition of the food. To complete the e-portfolio, everyone in our group signed up on the same day. After finishing the work, I took pictures of the outside of the community servings and took a photo with the group members. I asked the staff, but unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of the work area because cell phones are not allowed to be used in the work area.
Thursday 8/11 1-4pm: On my last job, I was five minutes late due to a subway breakdown. After I signed in and went into the kitchen, the community servings staff told me that the chopping and serving duties had been assigned. So, for the first time, I was assigned to work in the outside package. I was serving soup, cheese, and mashed potatoes with a group of high school students from the same high school. Afterwards, I packed and labeled the meal boxes. It was definitely an easy job compared to what I had been doing before. Also, working with these high school students brought me back to my high school life. This was my first time doing the labeling job. I found out that each label would have the date of manufacture, the ingredients, and the best before date of the food. After finishing my work, I rode the subway with a grandmother I was working with. She introduced me to her then BU math professor. I was very happy to work with her.
Reflection:
I feel that I gained more than I expected from this Service-Learning experience. I have improved my perception of myself, and some of my abilities, and gained more information related to food. First of all, I think the most valuable part of this experience was meeting and talking to a lot of people. Every time I went to work in community servings, I met people of different ages, identities, and personalities. By talking to these people, I learned about different people's experiences, which I think has opened my eyes and given me a lot of advice. In addition, the most important change in my life I gained from this service learning was my perception of food. Because I was exposed to different diets for people with different diseases in my job at Community Servings, I gradually learned what kinds of ingredients patients with different diseases needed to supplement or avoid. Beyond that, I began to habitually think about the health of my diet. I have become more aware of the ingredients in each dish. For example, when I used to shop at the supermarket, I only considered price, brand, and taste. But now I look at the ingredient list more carefully than before to make sure there are ingredients that are unhealthy for people. I think this makes my daily diet healthier. Even Though it is a relatively boring job, I still feel that I have gained and learned a lot from each week’s volunteer work. I learned different skills from the different jobs in Community Servings, and also gained different experiences and ideas from other people by talking to different people. So, if I could go back to the beginning of the semester, I think my advice to myself would be to experience more kinds of jobs and talk to more people! That would be an even more precious and valuable experience.