Thursday, December 11, 2008

Baskets of Hope by Rissa Meyer
During the Thanksgiving months I had an amazing opportunity to help with the Cornucopia food basket project and the TSAS community leadership program. I helped get volunteers and baskets of food for the needy in and around the Durham community. It took over a month for everything to get put together. There were a few bumps in the road but we were able to get over 160 baskets.
My favorite part of this project was being at Cornucopia and actually making the baskets. This really made me feel like I was making a difference in someone’s life. I knew I was going to help someone have a better, less stressful holiday season.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

baskets of hope Jon Buckley

This thanksgiving I was given the opportunity to work together with many great people in the community leadership program at the Thompson School. After our thanksgiving food basket project was assigned early in the semester, I was not so sure we would reach our goal of ninety baskets. Even though I knew I was working with some great people who care a lot about the community we live in, I was kind of doubtful that we could find ninety donors in the Durham area. Was I ever wrong. As the semester rolled on, we started getting donations from people all around the UNH campus, departments I didn't even know existed. As a member of the residence halls group, our group's goal was to get thirty baskets from the different residence halls throughout the campus. At first, we struggled finding dorms which would organize a basket for us. However, as time went on, we kept recieving calls back from various residece halls, pledging a basket for our food drive. As Thanksgiving neared, we arrived just under out goal of thirty baskets, making me very proud. In total our class along with Cornucopia took in over 150 food baskets from various members of the Durham area. I would just like to thank all donors, as they made Thanksgiving possible for many families who deserve to have a wonderful thanksgiving.

Poverty in America By: Brooke Rallis

Poverty in America is growing every day. Poverty is when people have lino money or any support. The government Department of Human and Health Services use poverty guidelines to determine a person or person’s eligibility for help from the government. Some examples would be Head Start, Food Stamp Program, National School Lunch Program, the low-income home energy assistance program and the children’s health insurance program. There are programs that are called cash public programs which use temporary assistance for families that are in need and supplemental security income. These do not use the poverty guidelines in determining eligibility. These are a list of some programs that use poverty programs, Community Services Block Grant, Head Start, and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
Poverty is a large issue in America currently in today’s society. With the large number of homeless women, men, and children, the government has been consistently putting forth effort into the demolish of the increasing poverty level. The stereotypical views of people who live in poverty include the people who live in the urban part of populated cities such as New York or Chicago. These “so-called” people, roam the streets, beg for food, and sleep wherever they can. These people are actually known to be homeless. This view set by the U.S. Americans who witness these people, do not know the meaning of poverty.
What people do not realize is that poverty includes the people who live under certain financial level, which is set by the U.S. government. The issue of poverty is has been increasingly rising and does not seem to be slowing down. Hopefully sometime soon, poverty will not be a large issue to America in the future.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

"Baskets of Hope" 2008 feedback and overview Jon Farhadian

The early days in the “Bar” seem so long ago. I can remember sitting in the dimmed lighting of that classroom with those tiny little desks. This is when we first began to learn about the “Baskets of Hope” project. We were to work together to reach our goal of 90 Thanksgiving food baskets. This number to me looked high at first, but everyone knew that it needed to happen. Average families are struggling right now. Imagine what’s happening to people with low income jobs. This year called for a greater demand of food and money donations.
The only way to get people to donate was to make people aware of the project. My specific group dealt with resident halls, so I went and talked to my dorm about poverty and why they should donate some food baskets. I e-mailed hall directors, if they didn’t e-mail me back I called them. I started off slow. I didn’t know how to approach people, probably with similar financial concerns and ask them to donate. The thing I didn’t realize is how willing people are to help. People love to help other people; they enjoy being a part of something big. All you have to do is ask. I wish I knew this right off the bat. To someone starting this project next fall I recommend you get on the ball right away and get donors, you’ll be happy you did.
It was also nice to see the way my classmates worked under pressure. We had a nice mix of personalities in our class that bonded just right. We were able to watch our basket count go up. We eventually passed our 90 basket mark and finished with around 170 baskets. The “Baskets of Hope” project gave me some eye opening insight to the world of poverty. The demand for baskets was as high as we expected it to be due to the current economic conditions. Probably a little more than expected. I never realized how serious of an issue poverty was within our own community. Participating in this project was a privilege and if I could do it over again I would go at it way harder. One important lesson I learned through a project like this is try not to “fall asleep” because before I knew it, it was over and it had me feeling like I wish I did more. All in all the “Baskets of Hope” 2008 project was a huge success and I hope its number exceed these next fall.