Nathalie Prudencio

COMM 2150

Sarah Billington

12/11/2022

Service-Learning Project

Community Partners: Utah Food Bank and Catholic Community Services.

Contact: Community Partner: Utah Food Bank

Address:
3150 S 900 W
South Salt Lake, UT 84119
Contact information: Chloe / Volunteer desk
Telephone: (801) 978-2452
E-mail: volunteerinfo@utahfoodbank.org

Community Partner: Catholic Community Services

Address:
224 N 2200 W
Salt Lake City, UT 84116
Contact information: Courtney Schriever
Telephone: (801) 428-1351
E-mail: cschriever@ccsutah.org

Project: I decided to volunteer at the Utah Food Bank and at the Catholic Community Services.

At the Utah Food Bank, I worked in the production line and advertising campaign.
Description: In my service I engaged with the Utah Food Bank helping to put boxes together,

shipping boxes, putting together happy boxes, collecting pears, and distributing flyers for an

event. My service with the Catholic Community Services engaged in serving food, giving the

served food to people.

My first job during my service project was to put items in a box at the Utah Food Bank; they

were folding boxes known as Happy Boxes that would be sent to older people. I also contributed

by distributing flyers to different businesses. I also worked at the Catholic Community Services

in the kitchen. My first experience at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Hall and Weigand Homeless

Resource Center was helping in the line serving food like desserts and potatoes, sweeping the

floor, sanitizing the kitchen stations, cutting mushrooms, and dicing potatoes and sweet

tomatoes.

While I worked at the Utah Food Bank, I mingled with younger and older people than myself

who familiarized me with the process on how items must be put in each box before they got

shipped out of the country.

On the other hand, when I worked at the Catholic Community Service, the people I worked with

were people in their middle 20s, people with kids and elderly people who shared stories about

their grandsons, and they were very nice to work with.

Culture group: One of the culture groups I worked with were refugees who may have been

Muslim. I was able to be among bilingual people, too, and that was very impressive. There was a

nice gentleman who spoke maybe Farsi or another language that is spoken in the Middle East.

He spoke to many people when I worked at the warehouse. Another culture group I interacted
while doing my service project were people who were 20 -24 years old. Last, but not least I

worked with people who were about 46 to 55 years old.

Challenges: One challenging time I had in the Utah Food Bank was when I went to deliver

flyers for the Utah human race campaign at Envios de Dinero on Saturday, Nov 12 at 6:20 p.m.

where people go to send money to their home countries. I asked the receptionist If I could hang a

poster to promote the event, even though she was not the manager nor the person in charge. She

told me to wait and had me waiting for about 7 to 10 minutes. The other worker who was

working right next to her was helping someone already. So, therefore, I was a bit patient and

decided to wait a little bit, but after a few minutes I decided to leave. The lady’s behavior was

quite informal, and I did not see a helpful attitude within her. After reading the textbook I found

out that this is a characteristic of violation of expectancy because I was expecting the receptionist

to get someone or call someone or at least get the attention of the other worker to help me out

rather than have me wait for so long.

Another challenge I experienced in the Catholic Community Services was when I was serving

food occurred on Saturday, Nov 26 at 5:10 pm. I was assigned to work giving people food as

they come in the line. As more people kept showing up, I noticed that we were behind. So, I

would say sorry for the delay of the food to the people who got there. However, this cute girl

whose name is Mary may have interpreted as If I was complaining or trying to throw people

under the bus. She started saying to the people who were waiting in the line that the food will be

coming and that we just wanted to have it warm and fresh for them. I thought that was okay to

say for sure. Later, during our shift, she was being nice and gave away an extra portion of

potatoes. As a result, one lady stood in front of the line and instead of taking the food she had the

lady had a request to make. I was explaining why it is important to say no to everybody when it
comes to giving extra meals. Continuing with the story, the same lady was asking for extra

coconut water, and Mary did her best to manage it around. However, the lady was getting a little

intense about the coconut water request and an extra meal. We had to call the security and the

lady was quite upset and left her tupperware in the line where we served the food to give. People

were moving and I mentioned to her that at time a few people threw away the food or got pretty

upset and left the facility. Mary learned the lesson about having on mind the policy when we

work there. After I finished my shift, I talked to Mary to try to smooth things out and when she

was sweeping and mopping the floor. I was telling her that I am the same way when I clean the

house and that when I sweep and mop the floor, I want nobody to mess it up when I take my time

to do it. She was laughing and I was laughing as well. At first, this was a bit challenging because

I really did not know her very well which made me feel a bit uncertain about what she would say

If I told her that. This can be a good example that even though an interaction can have a little bit

of uncertainty it is good to point things in a friendly manner to have our faces not being threat or

feel like we are not wanted in a place.

Theory and Analysis: In chapter 10 we discuss, “Culture, Communication, and intercultural

relationships.” I will point out the two benefits and challenges of intercultural relationships and

provide some examples that I found out on the internet and some that took place while I was

volunteering.

Intercultural relationships: Relationships that are formed between individuals from different

cultures (Martin et al, 2017. Pg. 397).

In the book the author mentions that most people have a variety of intercultural relationships that

may feature differences in age, physical ability, gender, ethnicity, class, religion, race, or

nationality. There are rewards and opportunities in these relationships which tend to be
tremendous. For example, while I volunteered in the kitchen for the Catholic Community

Services, I met “Carla” who was telling me that she studied in an immersion school which means

that she had the experience of merging French and English while attending school. There was

another guy who was telling me that he lived in Belgium, Germany, and Austria. I was telling

him about my story with Belgium people when I got hired at the airport and that I told the

Belgium couple that I loved the lady’s cool jacket and the fact that I like a lot Stromae who is a

Belgium singer who sings about social issues in his music and is very artistic overall. Carla, the

other guy, and I were having such a pleasant conversation and I was so amazed to learn about

someone who attended a school with such great advantage. The importance of a intercultural

relationship is that you gain knowledge throughout the phases you and the other person go

through.

Relational learning: Learning that comes from a particular relationship but generalizes to other

contexts. (Martin, 2017. Pg. 398)

According to the book, we can conclude that a romance or close intercultural friendship may be

the vehicle through which we learn something about history. Relational learning is often much

more compelling than knowledge gained from books, classes, and so on.

For example, when I volunteered with older people at the Catholic Community Services, I

learned that most people at that age want to get rid of things. I was mentioning that I got a good

cyber-Monday deal when I went to buy my laptop at Best Buy in downtown and most of the

ladies, I worked with were telling me that at their age they don’t want to accumulate things and

instead want to get rid of unnecessary things.

Another example, when I volunteered, I came across Brent who was there along with his family.

I didn’t even know that someone could do that which I thought it was cool, but I learned that it is

important to have patience when you are explaining a task to someone else who has never done it

like chopping potatoes and sweet potatoes. One of his kids was having a difficult time chopping

potatoes and while cutting he made the cleaver knife sound a bit loud. Brent told him to settle

down and to use another technique to help him cut through the food faster. He was very patient

and very kind while speaking to his son and showing him a better method to accomplish the task.

Challenges:

Stereotypes: Widely held beliefs about a group of people. (Martin, 2017. Pg. 208)

According to Chapter 10, the information stereotypes are a way of categorizing and processing

information but are detrimental when they are negative and are held rigidly. At times people

must work to get information that can counteract the stereotype. (Martin et al, 2017).

For example, a negative stereotype can be that white people don’t tend to clean or perform tasks

like cleaning the floor or mopping. During my time at the St. Vincent De Paul Dining Hall

Volunteer. I was able to see how my coworker after the end of the shift was sweeping and

mopping the floor without even complaining even thought he was young. He was quite content

about the activity he was asked to do. I was looking at him and we shared this funny anecdote

that when he was mopping the floor where people serve the food a lady threw a napkin in the

floor and told him, “Aha! Don’t miss a spot, make it spotless.” I was staring and him and he was

staring at me, and we were like, “Oh okay then.” It was a bit funny, and we just sort of giggle

from far away since he was like near the main door, and I was inside getting rid of the leftovers,

more inside the kitchen and dishwasher area.

Another example, the cultural difference in communication style. When I worked at the Utah

Food Bank putting a lot of pears together in a box to be send to people in necessity the two

friends I was working with and myself could not figure out why they wanted the boxes to be

more fully packaged until it was informed that it is for better consistence when we pile up and

wrap them together to be ship outside or to other states. I was honestly working with one lady

and a guy, and we were trying to put pears in the boxes, but at times some of them were fatter or

robust pears so it was harder to even fold the boxes to close them up. This is a challenge when it

comes to different cultures because one culture can be direct and another one will explain things

after certain task is fully done.

Reflection:

At the beginning of the semester, I felt like the project could help me out. I used to volunteer at

the Youth Center in Salt Lake City, and I really liked it we even had our little community and

serve the youth and do some outside activities like going to the hot springs in Honeyville, Utah

which is like 1 hour driving from Salt Lake City.

My apprehension was to work with people that I like just to make it easier for me. However, as a

few challenges and situations happened I felt like I needed to put effort into really applying the

things we learned in class like keep on mind that a different culture could have a different

interpretation and set of goals than yours. My attitude towards working with another culture was

quite optimistic because at the end of the day we are there volunteering to make a change in the

community. I thought it was very impactful and at times working in both places reminded me of

someone from my family that had an issue with alcohol and drugs a while back.
I feel like my attitude throughout the semester became more adaptable or understanding at least

for my project because after learning how one culture can approach to do one thing, another

culture can have a different approach towards the same situation. My attitude became more

mindful and understanding overall in the class and while working towards my project.

What I learned about the culture I served was that a person need to be able to be mindful of

others and be humble when doing service because at times we can focus in the little things like

the smell of the people, the negative encounters instead of focusing on the real change that each

person does while helping and that this time impacts people tremendously and it creates a sense

of humbleness at the same time and that when you serve it makes you be more grateful of the

things that you can take for granted like having a roof under your head, food, transport, and your

family.

The application of theory helped me a lot to know that even as a foreign that I am it is necessary

to be more educated in civic activities, be more engaged in my community, and be able to apply

our communication skills in a better way.

My definition of civic engagement at the beginning of the semester was to be able to vote. My

perspective of civic engagement has changed. I feel like the government can do better at helping

people that are in need. A while back I read a few stories about people who come back from

combat or military individuals who get wounded and can fall into depression and I wondered

why this people are not being helped or what can be done to do something about it. I feel like all

of us need to be more compassionate and more engaged about our surroundings and make a

change.
I felt very content about the contribution I made to the community. I felt like I was making a

change rather than just talk about helping people, do it because it has been since before Covid-19

that I’ve had a chance to serve others. I benefitted from the service by learning about some

policies while working with the Utah Food Bank like asking for permission If a company wants

to do some propaganda or hang a poster. I benefitted from the service by using my abilities in the

kitchen while cutting some food. It was very joyful to be there. The people and organization

benefitted from me because I truly had a good attitude. The people were nice as well to get along

which made my experience better.

I can incorporate what I learned during my service-learning project in my life by being more

grateful and mindful that there are so many more cultures to learn from and be more open to

interact with them than just the ones we tend to work with or see. I will incorporate my service-

learning project in future classes by being more generous and ask how to do something better

and ask for constructive feedback. I see me incorporating the skills I learned during my service

in my life by being more approachable and leave aside negative stereotypes that at times I have

heard or created in my mind. Start making more positive statements and be approachable to

different cultures and people overall.

References:

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2018). Intercultural Communication in contexts, 7th ed.
McGraw-Hill Education, 2018.