The organization I am actively involved with is the Second Harvest Food Bank. The organization was founded in 1983, beginning a food distribution operation for those who were going hungry in my home county. Despite being a more privileged area, in Orange County 290,000 people are at risk of hunger each month and 1 in 6 children are at risk of hunger. Every month they feed over 250,000 people leaving around 40,000 people who still need food. Last year they distributed 26,500,00 meals. On weekends, volunteers help out around their warehouse in any way possible, but generally it is packaging boxes with meals for families. Work at the warehouse ranges from sorting through fruit, packaging meals, organizing donations and separating them based on what type of food, and even harvesting ripe fruit from their farm.

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I've seen first hand how hard it can be to get by in Los Angeles and in Mexico with problems of homelessness and poverty. I've been very thankful to grow up in an amazing county, and I loved giving back to the community. There is something so great about hearing how many pounds of food you've processed in one day or how many meals you've packaged for families in need. Even just one person makes such a big difference in a group of volunteers. Everyone is happy to help out the community and is friendly despite hard physical labor of moving large volumes of food. At the end of the day, it's reassuring to know I've made a difference in people's lives and that I can give back to those who need help the most.