Shine City Project 11/09/2019

[Ken Doo]

Shine City Project

Just One Project – Helen M. Smith Elementary School
November 9, 2019

On November 9, 2019, Shine City Project spent time volunteering with the Just One Project! The Just One Project is a local, non-profit organization that inspires others to be involved and make a difference in order to build stronger and healthier communities. The Just One Project is Nevada's largest food pantry, and it strives to connect volunteers to help feed at-risk, low-income youth, adults, and families through several of its programs.

On Saturday morning, Shine City Project partnered up with the Nevada Conservancy League and other volunteers in helping to distribute food to children, families, and adults at a local school! Though there were various foods being distributed such as apples, grapes, small bags of rice, and frozen pork patties, our group was in charge of passing out potatoes! We had a pallet that was stacked high with 50-pound cases of Idaho potatoes, and we needed to make sure that most, if not all, of our potatoes were gone by the end of the service project.

To help us on this task, we had twelve volunteers representing Shine City Project! One of our volunteers was joining us for his first time! Though at first we were unsure at the amount of potatoes that we should distribute to each individual and family who had come to receive food, we ultimately decided that it was best to be as generous as possible. Repeatedly, we often offered to fill an individual's bag with a little bit more potatoes, and then afterwards offering even more.

At the end of the service project, our group was able to give out all of our potatoes! We had distributed over a couple thousand pounds of potatoes to those in need! Additionally, with all of the volunteers at the school, ten pallets stacked high with cases of food were given out to over 150 people which would have been about 100 families.

Overall, even though it seemed that we we were just offering potatoes to those who had come to the school, we were also offering our hearts and our love as well. We went above expectations in order to bring joy and a smile to others. Although at times it felt that we had too many volunteers, we also enjoyed just simply watching each other give out love and kindness in the form of potatoes. It was a heart-warming morning, and we hope that we can help out again!