I volunteered at Greenhouse ministries and below is the journal from that visit.

I chose to volunteer at Greenhouse ministries. The purpose of this organization is predominantly to help the low income and homeless families with food. They also offer computer classes, furniture, gas vouchers (only have a limited amount), and diapers. Greenhouse is supported and funded from donations by individuals, other organizations, and churches  If people are looking for a service they provided by Greenhouse, they give them names and numbers of organizations that help in that area. The purpose of Greenhouse is to “plant hope” in Murfreesboro.

            When I arrived, I went straight to work. I started out by separating diapers from big packs into smaller bags so that they could be easily handed out. Then I organized the food pantry shelves until the delivery truck came. After all the food had been unloaded, I went through the check list of what was supposed to be there to make sure all the food that had been paid for had actually arrived. Next I proceeded to put all the new food that just arrived in its place on the shelves. After that, I separated all the frozen meat into serving sizes for easier and quicker distribution. Cleaning up and answering phone is how I spent the rest of my day.

            I believe that Greenhouse is very important to community health. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a person can not achieve better health if the basic needs are not being taken care of first. Greenhouse helps provide for some of the basic needs so that the client can then focus on the higher level of needs. I have always loved to volunteer and lately have been so busy that I have not been able to. It is something that I have missed very much, so getting to do it today was really nice. I was not aware of Greenhouse previously and would look into it for future donations and volunteering. I am glad that I found out about it so that now if I have a patient that is unable to afford food or needs some of the other resources provided by Greenhouse, I can direct them to this fine organization.