Corn and Watermelon for Everyone!

I interviewed Teela Ruehle who oversaw all things Change Weekend to learn more details about planning the food drive and the amount of success that came from it. When asked why a food drive, she explained, “This summer during the pandemic, food was one of the biggest needs of people in our community and area. With so many people being out of work, or families who relied on school for lunches, we decided that this was a way that we could help meet a practical need of our community.” There was a collaboration with several different farms to get what was in season, which was corn and watermelon. Overall she believed it was a great success. Firstly, with getting Bixby Farms and Kerlikowske Farms to donate the corn and watermelon, respectfully. Secondly, an hour before the drive began there was already a huge line of cars waiting into the road which Ruehle said showed, “that the need/want for fresh veggies and fruit was the right choice to help our community with a basic need in a healthy way.” And at the end of it, 400 dozen fresh corn and 400 watermelons were distributed in just a few short hours!
I had a feeling that students were hoping for other opportunities to volunteer so I asked her if other events are being planned for the future. Turns out, there is an event in the making for October! “October’s will be sponsored by New Life and focus on foster and refugee children,” Ruehle explained. She advises people to be on the lookout for upcoming service opportunities each month and to stay on top of updates on social media.
I had not participated in an outreach activity in so long, so I was thankful for the experience that was planned by the Center for Faith Engagement. There are other students who felt the same way as they dedicated just an hour of their time to serve their community and feed dozens of families.
Maci Chen (junior, social work) was looking for an activity that allowed her to reach out to members of the community directly and saw that the Food Drive was the perfect option. This reaching out to the community was something she loved through this experience. Chen said, “Not only did I meet and get to know some other students from Andrews, but I also got to see the blessing that just some corn and watermelon could be for people.” When asked if she felt like she made an impact on the community through the food drive she said, “I was able to hear verbal affirmations from people driving through about what a great blessing it was and thanking us for doing the food drive.” Chen says she would definitely do this again and is excited to see what other opportunities the school will put together for outreach.
Alivia Lespinasse (sophomore, elementary education) was also really excited about this event because she really enjoyed Change Day her freshman year. We worked side by side during this event as I packaged stalks of corn into bags and she distributed them to the cars passing by. She said that she enjoyed her role handing out the food directly to the people, “I loved connecting with so many families and community members.” When asked if anything unique or interesting happened during her shift she said, “Nothing particularly unique but it was so rewarding to see the smiles on the faces of the people as they drove by. One man randomlyhanded us a stack of pamphlets about the coronavirus and how it relates to sin so I guess that was interesting.” Lespinasse also felt like the food drive made an impact on the community by “showing love in the form of service,” she said. And I think at the end of the day, that is what this whole Change Weekend experience was about.

Although we were not able to have the extravagance of a non-pandemic “Change Day,” love is life, so what is the point of these outreach opportunities if we are not showing love through our actions? We still served our mission at the end of the day, or should I say, weekend?