Discourse Communities 

Attention all New York Residents:       

  In New York City there is a food pantry where you can donate food to those who need it the most. This food pantry had organic produce from farms, canned foods as donations, and other baked goods such as bread. This pantry is open to everyone in the community, even to those who don’t live in Canarsie. Unfortunately, there is a lack of people to help out. It’s only five staff members who need to distribute food to families in the whole neighborhood. Since there is a lack of staff volunteers are able to come and help. You take a role and for that day that is what you’re assigned. I’m asking all of you out of the goodness of your heart to please come, donate and volunteer at this food pantry. This is something that’s really important because many people go many nights without a meal and likewise many food may go to waste because some people may have too much of it. If you have any food leftover come and donate. Imagine someone really close to you hungry in need of help. In 2022 we are still currently in a pandemic along with a bunch of other world crises. The least of our worries should be where our next meal is coming or whether we are going to have one or not. According to cityharvest.org, it says “Prior to the pandemic, 2.4 million New Yorkers were struggling to make ends meet. Nearly 1.2 million New Yorkers were experiencing food insecurity, including one in five New York City children.” As heart-wrenching as this is it’s an unfortunate reality however this problem can be resolved if everyone pitches in. Now you may be wondering how I can help? Even if you live nowhere near Canarsie there are many facilities that take in food donations. Some places are The Brooklyn Rescue Mission on 919 Gates Ave, The Campaign Against Hunger on 2010 Fulton Street, and The Salvation Army Brooklyn Bushwick Corps Community Center 1151 Bushwick Ave. These facilities help many families who suffer from food insecurity. Especially during this time of unemployment as the pandemic gets worse. It’s important people not only donate to these facilities to keep them up and running but volunteering is another great thing to do. Giving back to the community promotes a sense of trust and cooperation that strengthens our ties to others. This opportunity allows you to create networks with people and get to know some amazing people who also care and wish for the benefit of others. Another way you can help these pantries  is by donations in the form of money. The money allows these food pantries to do successfully. According to hudsonvalley.org, it says “every donation plays a part in making it possible for the Food Bank to provide over 15 million pounds of food and grocery products each year for hungry and disadvantaged people.” If you are fortunate enough and in the financial position to do so then you should most definitely consider donating because of the impact you can have on multiple families. With the help of you all, I’m sure we can certainly make a difference and change the lives of many with the combined efforts of you all. 

        Another discourse community I’m in is a study group I have with my friends outside the school. We’re all in the same major which is computer systems so we all get work we are all familiar with or new material we haven’t learned yet. So during this time we often exchange notes with each other teach topics someone might not have understood and quiz each other on material that will be on the upcoming exam. As positive as this is it comes with some issues that may not be noticeable to anyone. An issue we unfortunately face is a distraction. While we are young adults it doesn’t stop us from doing something a teenager might do such as checking their phone losing focus for a couple of minutes or just falling asleep. When we’re outside of school we don’t think about our major we have our own hobbies and things we do in our free time so It’s a hard commitment to come and study three times a week because as college students we get a lot of homework and in rare cases experience burnout. In addition to the mountains of work, we receive when we finish that work we need to study for any exams. Due to this, it’s always easy for one of my friends to say “let’s take a break”. Fifteen minutes turn to thirty minutes then an hour and it continues until we all call it for the day. Although this happens often when we all need to actually sit down and focus we have no issue getting the work done but due to our fleeting focus, it proves to be a challenge from time to time. Another issue we face is a lack of resources. Being a college student a lot of costs are involved textbooks supplies tuition etc. This isn’t even taking into consideration our own costs such as phone bill metro card food etc. While there are avenues to get past some of these some of my friends simply don’t buy the textbooks because they’re too expensive and they will only be used for that semester and then never again. Often times one of us will be sharing a textbook with someone else and this can result in more issues arising. When both students have a test the next day what happens to the one who doesn’t have a textbook? We simply just pray for the best and hope he studied enough during our sessions in order to retain enough information. With that being said it can be rough having to live such a budget but since we all know each other and have been friends for a long time we always find a way to make it work.