Service Learning Project

     During a recent volunteer outing at my church, FCC, 20 members banded together for an afternoon to go help out a struggling mother of three. Mrs. Curn had lost a child about 5 years ago and had since been on a downward spiral. She couldn't keep a job, her house looked as if it were a neglected storage unit, and her kids were lucky if they came home to a well cooked meal. We went to help her clean her house, cook for her children, and help with everyday necessities. I learned how much tragedies can affect your life and that everyday should be treated like a blessing.
     Garcia talks of Texas children who are hungry and others who are obese. Texas is one of the top states in child obesity, ranking as the 7th highest in America. However, Texas only ranked 49th (almost last) in having reliable food aid for children who are 18 years of age or younger. Due to the fact Mrs. Curn cannot keep a job, she can only afford cheap foods. These kind of foods happen to be the highest in calories and are usually all processed foods. Just as Garcia explained, most families live in areas know as "food deserts". These areas lack the natural produce that are so readily available in supermarkets. Mrs. Curn and her kids live in an area where the only food they can get within walking distance, since they do not have a car, is at the convenience store or fast food restaurants. As a result, Mrs. Curn and her kids are slightly over weight and would be considered, by definition, as obese. Obesity is unhealthy and can result in health problems and possibly death.
     In regards to the George Carlin video on youtube called "stuff", Mrs. Curn had plenty of it. Carlin talks, or more appropriately jokes, about how we always want more stuff. Even if we already have the things we need, many of us feel we need more. This can result in hoarding. The feeling of needing more and more tends to make our houses cramped and more cluttered. Mrs. Curn always felt she needed more things, even if she could not afford them. As I talked to her during some one on one time, she told me that if she didn't have all those things, she would be even more empty inside than she already is. She hoards to fill the gap caused by the death of one of her children. This was very saddening to me, a part of me got a glimps of how hurt she still was. She talked about how everyone regards her things as crap, but to her each item has a meaning and each item is useful to her in its own way. This takes me back to Carlins video when he says, "How you ever noticed how other people's stuff is shit, but your shit is STUFF?" Mrs. Curn is so distraught and unattached, she can't see that all her things, or "stuff", are making her home unlivable for her three young children and how her spending money on things she doesn't need takes away from allowance that could be spent on healthier food for her children. Healthier food would help the health of her children tremendously. It's very disheartening to see a mom so depressed, it blocks her from realizing the most important thing in her life right now is not her things, but her children and their well being and health.

Service Learning Project

I chose to volunteer at Our Daily Bread which is a local charity organization that collects food and prepares meals for the unfortunate Monday through Friday. During my service there I did many things such as wash and prepare fruits and vegetables that we used in the meal we made for that day. When it was time to serve them I couldn’t help but notice that the people I was working with were adopting the Christian Marxian ideal presented by Hardin. They were being “a brother’s keeper” by trying to help every last one of those needy people into our lifeboat. While this is a very generous act that this organization provides, I don’t necessarily see it as the best solution, it is just a temporary fix. If they keep taking in more people their lifeboat will eventually sink just like Hardin suggests. He says it “sounds nice, but…good intentions are no substitute for good performance”. Our Daily Bread needs to “teach these men how to fish” instead of just “giving them a fish”. While I was serving the needy I realized that there was a dramatic increase in the number of people there versus the last time I volunteered, which was about a year ago. This was depressing to me because our country is always so quick to help out other countries in need rather than fix or solve our own problems first. In the 12 Myths reading by Holly Poole-Kavana the tenth myth brings this issue up. According to Poole-Kavana all of our aid goes to foreign entities to support things like free trade and free market, instead of being used to clothe and feed our hungry here in the U.S. After they finished eating their lunch I helped wash all of the dishes (they use dishes instead of Styrofoam and plastics to help out the environment and the help keep a count of how many people they serve). Some of the needy people stayed there the entire time while others ate and left. After all of my duties were done I decided to mingle around with them. I was even invited to play a game of checkers, which I lost. After volunteering, I was even motivated to volunteer to work their charity booth selling some of their guest’s artwork at the Arts and Jazz Festival, however it was rained out. I do intend to volunteer in the kitchen again on Fridays though.

All in all my overall experience volunteering at Our Daily Bread was very eye-opening. I was able to see just how little some people have and how lucky I am. This class helped me realize that hunger and starvation is still a very big issue not just in our country, but also in other countries all over the world and we need to address it, fast. After all, “Food is our most basic need, the very stuff of life” (Shiva pg. 5). To deny someone of that necessity when you have it to give is cruel.

SLP Mercy for Animals

     I volunteered to work a few hours for Mercy for Animals on Saturday April 30th. They are a non-profit organization that wants to prevent farm animal cruelty and make people chose more compassionate food choices. I was interested in Mercy for Animals because in class after learning about animal cruelty on farms I was a little repulsed. I decided that Mercy for Animals would be a good choice to volunteer at because I wanted to help inform others of animal abuse on farms and how and where they get meats.  I helped at an informational booth next to a vegan bake sale . We handed out flyers and a video called farm to fridge that depicts the horror of factory farming that many people don't see or know about. We also took donations to help support Mercy for Animals cause by selling stickers with their logo, and we also sold t-shirts. Because of the bad treatment of farm animals many people in Mercy for Animals are vegans and some are vegetarians.

      I talked to the main coordinator of the stand to get a better understanding of her idea and knowledge on the topic.  After talking with her, the main reason people become vegan in the organization is due to the fact that animals feel and suffer pain in their horrible conditions on factory farms. When watching the video, Fridge to Farm, and thinking about what I heard from the Coordinator, it reinforced the idea that CAFOs are really horrid and cruel to their animals. In the video it showed more violent images than I had ever seen like slitting the throat of cows still conscious, castrating pigs as newborns without anesthetic, and grinding up baby boy chicks because they are thought of as useless.   This is similar to the reading "Brave New Farm" by Jim Mason and Mary Finelli. They describe the treatment of animals in farms and the inhumane practices of the farms. They also describe some of the events like the video. They also talk about how animals sit in cages no bigger than their body and can't even turn around. Animals in CAFOs have open wounds and disease due to bad air and conditions, and are not given medication to treat their wounds. In the "Brave New Farm",  they explain that these practices won't stop; "As long as meat  is considered acceptable, farm animals will not rise above the status of consumables". After hearing and watching the video it made me think that the article can't compare to watching a video and seeing images and the cries of the pain and treatment animals suffer through. Images are more convincing to turn people away from factory Farm foods. That is why Mercy for Animals does flyers and undercover videos of cruelty of animals.

                In one of Mercy for Animals flyers I read, it said that because animals have similar interest, we should not eat them. Meaning that they have emotions of happiness and can feel pain like humans. This reminded me of Peter Singer's, "The Way We Eat Why our Food Choices Matter".  He also says that animals have the capacity to suffer like we do. He says that we are taking part in Speciesism. Why eat one animal and not another?  In Mercy for Animals they have a similar idea, why can you love a dog or a cat for a pet and not a pig or a chicken? They also explain that pigs are smarter than dogs and smarter than some three year old children. At the end, Singer says to eat ethically is not to eat meat at all. Even if the meat is said to be free range, cows are still shipped to slaughter houses to be killed and that is questionable on how humanely they were slaughtered.

       We treat Farm Animals like slaves. We raise them to be killed and feed to people all over the United States and other developed nations. Many animals are beat and go through horrible pain that can last for months. Treatment ignores the fact that many animals want to live in better conditions and want a better life. In a poem by Mary Spears called "Eyes of the Dead", she describes her experience on one day seeing a dead pig over  a man's shoulder. She says "How many of my ancestors were treated like today's farm Animals?" There is no respect or good treatment of the animals. They are perceived as nothing more than a supply of food for lots of people. They have no rights, and are bred to be slaughtered. Mercy for Animals wants to stop this process because Farm animals are similar to people. They have feelings and want to live in good conditions also.

     After Helping out and learning more about cruelty of farm animals, it has led me to rethink the idea of where my food comes from and what foods to consume. I felt that working with Mercy for Animals reinforced the readings and made me want to start to become vegetarian and maybe one day vegan. I also plan to help out more later if I am available after the summer. I won't look at the meat I consume the same. The treatment of animals is horrible and so are their living conditions. Not everybody in the U.S. will become vegan but the more that decide to stop consuming meat and dairy products will help more farm animals from being raised in factory farms.

Our Daily Bread

Before our Environmental Issues class, we started to discuss world hunger and how that the numbers have increased drastically within five years. But I could not grasp the concept in why this was happening to the community. A lot of people and families were on the street and in third world countries it was just a regular thing that some families were living on the streets. Some of the reading that we read in class about world hunger for example, “12 myths about hunger,” and “Stolen Harvest,” by Shiva; I saw that third world countries were suffering dramatically compared to the United States. When I went to Lebanon last summer, I saw so many families that were on the street and were doing anything to get by just for that day; if it wasn’t from selling products like gum, it was begging, or even stealing from open markets in the street so they can just feed their children at night. You also have children scavenging for food or finding some type of money just so they can take it home to their parents so they won’t be beaten at night for night bringing anything. It was sad to see it and it hurt have to see children at that age go through that. So in a sense for me to get a better grasp on this concept and to answer all my questions I decided to go volunteer at a soup kitchen in Denton, TX called Our Daily Bread that is located in St. Andrews Protestant Church. It began at 9:30 in the morning and there we started to prepare for lunch that was served at noon. Liz was the head chef of Our Daily Bread, she gave everyone different task that needed to be completed so everything can be ready to go at noon to serve to the community. There is met a couple of people that have been in this program for about fifteen years and are members of the church as well. They say they enjoy giving back to the society and helping people in need because seeing people smile and grateful that someone is out there helping them out. Shiva explained in his story that most gave up their lands or harvest because of the debt the family was in, and that what could help them. “The starving Bengal peasants gave up over two thirds of the food produced, leading their debt to double.” They had no other choice but give up crops, which this leads them to have nothing let at the end. Which kids and families are left starving because no food was left? In the story, 12 myths about hunger that “food is always available to those who can afford it- starvation during hard times hits only the poorest.” And one way they worded it in the story is that, “trapped in the unremitting grip of debt, or miserably paid.” I didn’t realize how many people there were living on the streets or in shelters because of debt or financial issues they were dealing with. I talked to some people, to find out what happen to them and a lot of them were there because they lost their jobs and one issue to another started to arise and in a sense they lost everything. It was hard for some of them to talk about these issues and others just needed someone to talk to because in a sense they saw someone wanting to hear and listen to them. In the 12 myth it states that, “we have had a net loss of over a million jobs here in the U.S. while in Mexico has lost 1.3 million in the agricultural sector alone and hunger is on the rise in both countries.” Hunger from one third to two thirds of the population because people have been too poor to buy the food grown on their own country’s soil. One thing that people don’t realize as in a society we only can help so much, which in a sense we don’t see the bigger picture like on lady named Jackie said while we were preparing food. The United States, the world is growing were ever you are, generation is growing. Kids and being born, homes are being built and in a sense that means we are going to have to feed more mouths. Shiva quotes, “worrying about starving future generations won’t feed them. Food biotechnology will. The world’s population is growing rapidly, adding the equivalent of a China to the globe every ten years. To feed these billion more mouths, we can try to extending our farming land or squeezing greater harvests out of existing civilization.” It just made me start thinking what will happen, with just the food we prepared at the soup kitchen and food and supplies that all these different places donated, it can only last for so long because it will come to a point it won’t be enough for the society. Honestly I can say I really enjoyed volunteering and helping out people that truly needed it. It is something that I would love to do in the future, just by helping out and showing that I care and grateful for what I had and just to make a difference in someone else life.

SLP PROJECT: ANIMAL SHELTER

Erik Ewing
SLP PROJECT
I recently volunteered at the Denton County Animal Shelter and it taught me a lot about the treatment of animals. I love animals and going to this place to volunteer was an excellent activity for me. I got to play with all the dogs and see all of the animals that the place had to offer. They made me clean the animal’s cages, and I even got to take some of these awesome dogs out on a walk. I also got to see the hurt animals that were soon to be put down or die of natural causes. This really saddened me since I thought maybe there would be more someone could do to help out these poor animals. I realize they are in cages most of their time at the shelter and getting them out made me feel better about their living situations. I believe that Francione would disagree with the animals living conditions in the animal shelter since he states that “We deprive them of sleep, keep them in solitary confinement, and cage them for most of their lives.” Even though there is love at the animal shelter I do agree with Francione’s opinion on the matter since the animals are fed rarely and kept caged for a lot of the day. I noticed this when I walked through the shelter while volunteering and saw animals packed in cages down a hallway. This would not be fun for humans so why would we think it’s ok to treat animals like that. This also agrees with Francione’s ideals since he believes humans think of animals as property and not living creatures. He goes on to say that people believe “animals are nothing more than things despite the many laws that supposedly protect them.” I like a quote from Kant’s reading on “Duties to Animals are indirect” when he says “for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men.” I believe Kant is trying to say that we have corresponding duties towards animals just as a house pet would have towards its master. In these animal shelters, from what I saw, the place was run very short-handed and did not have enough staff to care and tend for these animals that have a right to live a normal life. In addition, Kant shows a great point when he says that “animals develop humane feelings toward human beings.” If this is true then why are we treating the animals with such disrespect like at these shelters? I realize that these dogs and cats would be out on the streets if it weren’t for shelters, but I know there is a more humane to go about treating them when they should be treated like a human in the first place. Montaigne makes a good point in his reading on “Difference does not Justify Domination” when he states “In the vanity of our presumption we prefer to owe our superiority to our own powers rather than to animals.”As humans we have a certain thought in our mind that we are superior to every other living thing. We should not treat these animals badly, or not take enough care of them, just because we believe we are more superior.
These readings and my volunteer work helped show me how badly some animals are treated in these shelters. They should not be locked up in cages so closely together, and I can even relate my experience to some of these author’s writings.