Food Pantry Case Study

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The service learning opportunity I chose was working at the food pantry for a local group called Allies Linked for the Prevention of HIV and AIDS (ALPHA). ALPHA is a local organization that supports individuals with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in the Treasure Valley community. ALPHA provides multiple services their specific community, Housing Opportunities for persons with AIDS, providing support for navigating the medical bureaucracy called Linkage to Care, testing and food pantry services. My initial experiences working at the food pantry would be almost like any job at this point of my life, but I think that is just various life experiences that you would build over time and learn to…show more content…
My first expectation without investigating the subject further was that all the people using ALPHA’s services were sickly people scarcely able to function without aid. My expectation was due to my personal inexperience with people who have HIV and my only knowledge on the subject was watching movies where every character who had HIV was weak and sickly always needing physical assistance. Working at the pantry, thankfully swept that vision away, seeing that the majority are physically capable of self-care only needing some assistance, just as anyone else…show more content…
The role of the direct service provider is an individual that engages directly with the individual and family. My responsibilities at the food pantry required direct contact with both individual and family, I see this as almost a default role for the position, but the amount of direct contact is left up to the individual. You could easily go through a shift handing out food, or you could engage tricking up conversations about favorite foods. I found over time that taking the role of the direct service provider as something more than a simple service, aides in other ways and roles and your slowly build a report with your clients or customers. One role that can be enhanced this way is the educator. The educator serves the client as a source of information regarding anything from coping strategies and resources. My example, I have been able to provide ideas of recipes for healthy foods to ideas on how cook wheat berries, also to stay away from the military rations that have been on the shelf for some time. Strength-Based and Empowerment Perspectives plays an important role in ALPHA’s food pantry service. This perspective places an important role in how the individual does not have problems but focuses on the possibilities of the individual. The strength-based perspective used in this instance to empower individuals to not see HIV as the end, but the possibilities

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