By: Navyaa Jain ‘23, Commentary Editor

Every time I have a conversation with someone about how they get their service hours, I tend to hear the same responses: working at a soup kitchen, planting crops for a community garden, or advocating for a cause with a volunteer organization. Of course, these are all incredibly beneficial and important ways to serve, but they also raise the question: do we have a strong understanding of the communities we aim to serve? Hoping to address this exact question, the Community Service Council has emphasized experiential learning, an educational approach to service that aims to better address a community’s needs by having volunteers reflect on their interactions during service. At the end of November’s Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, NA hosted its annual Hunger Banquet and Solidarity Sleepout, hoping to explore these intersecting issues in unique ways. The event focused on educating our community and enacting the Service Council’s mission. 

The Hunger Banquet explored this year’s service theme, Food Insecurity, through a collaborative effort with the Food and Human Rights Clubs (facilitated by Leo Caplan ‘23 for his Creativity, Action, & Service Project). At the Hunger Banquet, participants received a story card for the night, including their socioeconomic status, which determined the amount of food they would receive. During dinner, the few participants of higher status received ample amounts of food compared to those of lower economic status. Furthermore, to emphasize the fragility of class, some people’s story cards would change to move them up or down the economic ladder. By having varying income levels at the same dinner, the event aimed to visually represent the large income gap in NJ that fuels food insecurity. Most importantly, the event placed participants into the communities they often learn about from a distance, so attendees understood more than just the statistics they read on paper. 

Following the Hunger Banquet, some community members headed on to participate in the Solidarity Sleepout, an event meant to benefit the Covenant House of New Jersey. In the weeks leading up to the event, participants were required to fundraise for the Covenant House on their own and raise a minimum of $300 (all contributing to the overall NA goal of $20,000). After a series of programming that educated the community on the Covenant House and their work on youth homelessness, students slept outside on the front patio of NA to build empathy and understanding. The morning after, participants reflected on how their views have changed: “All I could think about was how any discomfort is simply one night for me and the true conditions of homelessness are not even comparable,” said Inchara Hosanagar ‘24, a member of the Solidarity Sleepout planning committee. 

To create change and understand how to address problems through our service, we must truly listen and learn from the communities we are entering. Whether or not the community service you engage in is as experiential as these events, you should always be reflecting on the impact you made and the lessons you learned. The overall goal of these NA service events is not just to teach you about these topics, but to hopefully change the way you think about service, regardless of the issue or event. As you’ll go on to engage with service at NA through multiple different opportunities, remember that reflections aren’t just to verify your experience but to ensure that you’re constantly learning how to be more impactful with your service.