This spring, I applied for a service project through OSU's Buck-I-Serv program, where I was placed into the Dallas cohort via a lottery process. I was very fortunate to serve with a small group of ten Ohio State students equally as passionate about community service, and we quickly became friends on the sixteen hour drive down to The Lone Star State.  

 During our week in Dallas, we volunteered daily at the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB), which provides more than 170,000 meals each day for hungry children, seniors and families through a network of more than 1,000 programs and 200 Partner Agencies in North Texas. The task of packaging, sorting, and unloading so much food seemed daunting to us at first, but with the help of the patient and selfless senior volunteer workers, we quickly caught on to the ins and outs of the facility. In fact, the hospitable (and brave!) host couple who took all ten of us in for the week had been volunteering at the Food Bank for more than ten years. In addition to the work in the Food Bank, we assisted community members in getting fresh groceries at at a nearby Food Pantry funded by the NTFB, and we delivered packages of food to elderly neighbors who were physically unable to get their own food.   

We also had some free time during our trip to explore all that the sprawling metropolis of Dallas had to offer - some highlights included eating quality pie in the Bishop arts district, enjoying the pleasant weather in a park on top Klyde Warren 

park situated directly above the freeway, and of course, spending an evening as one must while in Texas, dancing in the World's Largest Honkey Tonk venue. 

Overall, I am so glad I challenged myself to go on this trip with a group of people I had never met in a place I had never been. We all 

took so much away from our experiences interacting with the phenomenal people of Dallas, and it was extremely rewarding to know that our joint efforts resulted in a real impact to combat the challenge of hunger which thousands in our nation's community continue to face every day.  

For more information about programs and applications, please visit the Buck-I-Serv website: https://buckiserv.osu.edu/

Trips are available for spring, summer, fall, and winter breaks and generally very affordable!