Well, we finally made it to Indy after a surprisingly short 8 hour drive involving lots of variety radio stations, country music for days, and a pit stop at Rally’s. Although the ride up here was quiet, I have been talking to and getting to know my fellow Bear Breakers since we arrived. We’re a pretty small group, which I love, because it is easier to share ideas and feel more comfortable around each other sooner. We already learned the trick to making a 360 spin on a fancy piece of playground equipment together, and concluded that games are not fun to learn after a full day of driving. We also bonded over feelings of extreme hunger, plotting how to sneak cookies off the counter after we (slightly) barbarically devoured four pieces of leftover KFC chicken and some corn split between 6 people while waiting for our groceries to arrive. After that experience, I knew this was going to be a great trip. Everyone is so happy and easy-going, but also very willing to learn about sustainability and help the community, whether it be here in Indianapolis or back in Springfield. Plus, the church we are staying in seems like a great community, and everyone here is more than willing to help make our stay as comfortable as possible, which really inspires me to be more open to helping others, and also makes me feel at home.
During our after-dinner conversation about what to expect for tomorrow and some reflection about hunger and sustainable food practices, I felt so motivated to help out. I loved the conversation we had just casually standing around the leftover frozen pizza slices talking about such an important topic. Everyone was engaged in the conversation and brought up lots of ideas about not only what the problems with food waste and hunger are, but what some steps are that we can take right now while attending Missouri State to help. We all learned something new I think, one thing I learned being that our dining halls have a great program where food close to spoiling is taken by students from the dining halls to be delivered to people in need in the Springfield community. I learned a lot more, but that one fact just stuck out to me and made me really happy that our school is concerned about sustainability and giving back to the community so much.
All in all though, I can say that I am really pumped for the service we will be doing at the Gleaners Food Bank tomorrow, and for all that I will be learning about sustainability and helping others throughout the week. Plus, I’m excited to try a milkshake at the creamery we are going to because they are apparently quite tasty!
Catch you later 🙂