This summer, I was an intern for Food lifeline as a part of the Bank of America Student Leaders Program. I didn’t quite know what to expect coming in, just that Food Lifeline is a well-known nonprofit that distributes food. As a part of my internship, I learned about all of the different departments at Food Lifeline and worked on projects for the policy team.
As a Bank of America Student Leader, I got the opportunity to participate in an eight-week long internship with Food Lifeline. During these eight weeks, I also attended a week-long summit to Washington D.C. with the other 220 Student Leaders across the country. The Summit focused on the importance of service and we heard from prominent speakers, among which were Barbara Bush and Wes Moore. We also had the opportunity to speak to our State Representatives and simulate a mock congress. The best part of the Summit was meeting my fellow Student Leaders and learning about the impact they have made and plan on making in their communities.
The first two weeks of my internship were spent learning about the Ins and Outs of Food Lifeline. I learned about the Development, Agency Relations, Volunteer program, Policy, and Grant teams that work together. My favorite experience during those two weeks was being able to participate in a Member Agency Council Meeting and volunteer for a day. I volunteered with the Sort and Pack, and Fresh Rescue teams. Seeing all the food that Food Lifeline supplies gave me a great insight into the impact that they are having on our hungry communities. I was able to see where some of that food went when visiting food banks with the Member Agency Council. Each food bank had their own way of distributing food, what impressed me most was the passion that they all had for ending hunger. It was amazing to meet so many people who truly cared about their communities and are working so hard to make change. 
My main role at Food Lifeline was working on various research projects for the Policy Team. I created several one-pagers about different anti-hunger programs in Washington, put together voter registration information, and did some scorecard research. Doing research on anti-hunger programs opened up my eyes to how much of an impact hunger has in Washington. Although I knew hunger was a big problem nationally, I wasn’t aware that Washington is the 23rd hungriest state in the country. Learning about these different programs made me realize the difficulty that low-income people face in receiving aid. I became even more impacted by this information when visiting Kids Café sites with Congressman Rick Larsen and Congresswoman Suzan DelBene. It was inspiring to see the impact anti-hunger programs have in person.
I’m so happy I got to spend my summer at Food Lifeline. I’ve always been interested in working for a nonprofit, so having the first-hand experience was very valuable for me. This experience has truly changed the way I see my community. Working for Food Lifeline has motivated me to become more involved in helping others in my community, and for that, I am forever grateful.
