Our group met bright and early at the 6:30 in the morning to
jump-start our alternative break weekend. We were really excited to meet
everyone and respected how students forfeited their weekend to do service in
the Appalachian region. We got to Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast
Tennessee, which was our first service opportunity. Second Harvest’s mission is
to end hunger by serving the Carter, Greene, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson,
Sullivan, Uncoi, and Washington Counties. Our community partner and site host,
Tammy Laney, spoke to us about the outreach of the organization and how
communities can better plug in. Our team’s first task was to bag green beans
from local farms to help deliver fresh produce. Due to spoilage, fresh
vegetables have a short life span and can be expensive. Many families use
canned, packaged or frozen vegetables with their meals, therefore, fresh fruits
and vegetables are a luxury. Produce also generates food waste, so it was cool
that farms will donate what they do not sell to food banks to avoid throwing
out food. This service opportunity is a good example of indirect service
because we were assisting in tasks that would have fallen on the site visit. By
sorting through produce, we freed up time for the employees to spend their time
doing other tasks.
Our
next site was Appalachian Family Outreach located on Roan Mountain. Their
mission is very unique in that they provide a safe haven for people who serve.
They have many units, which they rent out at a low cost or in exchange for work,
so that leaders have a getaway when they return from their mission. Appalachian
Family Outreach also serves to help unite Military Family Families after
deployment. It was very heartwarming to hear Larry’s, the site host, personal
story about why he values outreach to returning military heroes and their
family. While we were there, we did ground maintenance work consisting of clean
windows, raking leaves, weed eating, and other facilities maintenance work. Larry
was appreciative of the participants’ hard work.
Concluding
Thursday’s service, we arrived at our housing site, First United Methodist
Church of Elizabethton. We cannot express our gratitude towards FUMC’s Youth
Minister, Doug Hulshult. The church offered up their youth home to house us for
the weekend, included us in community events, and kept us fed for a majority of
the weekend. When we arrived we were greeted with open hearts, open arms, and
Ridgewood barbeque. The church went out of its way to welcome us.
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