Journal Entry - Week 3

Internship Dates – 5/29, 5/30, 5/31, & 6/1 (Total of 29 hours)

I went in for my first day at the Community Food Bank of Citrus County and hit the ground running. While I began with limited experience and understanding of the internal roles at a food bank, I have quickly learned quite a bit that goes on. The Executive Director, John Autry, had the current Office Administrator, Susan, train me in a number of unfamiliar areas including logging donation receipts into the Feeding America (Feeding Tampa Bay) website, creating donation reports, and writing out invoices for agencies that utilize the resources available through this organization. One additional highlight this week has been the ability to create a postcard for an upcoming fundraising event. I have had some experience in creating these types of advertising, and I’m excited that they will be using my design.

I found that this week was a great week to learn about the reports that are created surrounding the donations from various stores in the community (Wal-Mart, Save-A-Lot, Sam’s Club, etc.). Donations are collected daily, with reports written out at the end of the day, the week, and the month. This week I had the ability to write out reports for all three, which show the leadership staff, the board of the directors, donors, and other necessary individuals what has been collected and is available for distribution for those in need throughout the community.

This week has shown me clear examples of some of my strengths when it comes to my future as a Human Services administrator. Some of these examples include my demeanor, my willingness to reach out and provide necessary information, as well as my ability to learn quickly. There is a lot of room for growth as well, especially in learning about these areas with which I have no prior experience. I have committed myself to being willing to learn and observe the different leaders and their respective styles at the Food Bank.