Hello, my name is Lina May! This was my second semester to volunteer at Christian Services by doing Meals on Wheels. Fighting hunger is something I’ve always been passionate about and have continued to be involved in. Christian Services is an excellent organization that I have really enjoyed working with. They provide so much help and resources to the community of Hattiesburg. Katelyn Cartwright and I teamed up once again to deliver lunch to people in our community who are in need. When working with Meals on Wheels, every Thursday morning around 11 we drive to the Christian Services building downtown and pick up the meals. Then after this we follow the route we have been provided with and deliver the meals. This takes us around an hour to complete. Participating in this organization once a week continues to challenge my perspective on life and make me so grateful for what I have. It gets me out of my bubble and reminds me how many people in our community are in need of help.

This semester our route was different than last semester so Katelyn and I got to meet lots of new people. Everyone we deliver to is so kind and friendly and always have the biggest smiles on their faces. It is truly inspiring and life-giving to see the joy and resilience of these awesome people. Whether they can’t cook for themselves because they have recently had surgery, are elderly, have physical limitations, or have low income, they all seem to be so happy all the time. They seem to love life. The short conversations we have with these people between house to house are wonderful. I have learned this semester to slow down more and ask each person how they are doing and if they need any help while we are there, rather than quickly delivering their meal and leaving. I have learned some wonderful pieces of wisdom from these great people and I hope we have delivered them a bit of joy along with their meals.

This link provides more information on Meals on Wheels at Christian Services: https://www.unitedwaysems.org/meals-wheels

If you are interested in getting involved here is a link to the volunteer application: https://www.unitedwaysems.org/volunteer

This post was written by Lina May, media and entertainment management major, who has completed her third year at Southern Miss as a Luckyday Scholar.