Indigo Robinson

KNH 103 Introduction to Dietetics

Volunteer Project

#HashtagLunchbag

The volunteer opportunity that I chose to participate in was called #HashtagLunchbag.

This is a humanity service movement that is dedicated to empowering and inspiring humanity to

reap the benefits of giving through the use of social media.1 It involves a group of people who

make lunch bags, puts in words on encouragement, and passes them out to people in the nearby

community. This movement has taken off all over the country with movements being started

along the east coast and all the way to California as well. When I first heard about this

opportunity to participate in this movement on Miami Universitys campus, I jumped at the

opportunity to make a difference in the Cincinnati community. This event took place in the

Armstrong Student Center in room 2048. The packing of the lunches lasted about two hours long

and the event was hosted by Miami Universitys Black Presidents Caucus (BPC) in

collaboration with the Black Student Action Association (BSAA), Delta Upsilons Chapter of

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., and Lambda Mus Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

My job in the assembly line of making the lunch bags was to assemble the sandwiches.

We used whole wheat bread, turkey or ham, and cheese to make the sandwiches. While

assembling the sandwiches, we, as volunteers, were able to converse and talk about our

experiences here at Miami University. Out of this event, not only did I feed 100 + people, I made

1
"Join the Movement." #HashtagLunchbag. Ed. Herman-Scheer. The Living Through Giving
Foundation 501(c)3, Jan.-Feb. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <http://www.hashtaglunchbag.org/>.
some friends that I am still in contact with to this day. This was a great opportunity to help the

Cincinnati community and I am very glad that I decided to help.

I am pretty sure that the funding for the ingredients was either out of pocket or funded by

the Greek organizations, BSAA, and BPC. For the movement in general, the money is raised

solely by the volunteers and participants involved.

The operation could have run more smoothly if the amount of food we needed for the

lunch bags was estimated before the actual time of the event. There was a brief time where we

had to wait because we needed to get more ingredients for the sandwiches. My interest in

dietetics could have helped in this event because I have some knowledge about healthy food that

people should be eating and I could have offered some healthy snacks to include in the lunch

bags.

We, about 15-20 volunteers including me, ended up making over 100 lunch bags filled

with encouraging notes, sandwich, fruit, drink, and a packaged snack. Even though I personally

did not get to hand out the lunches, just making them in itself really strengthened my love for

helping others. Being a nutrition major and knowing that there are so many children out there in

the world that do not have access to lunch every day is heart breaking and by participating in this

event, I have somewhat helped alleviate that hunger for at least a day.