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Pan de Vida is an organization under New Life Centers that distributes fresh food to families in Chicago, particularly those living in Humboldt Park, Little Village, Midway, and Albany Park. Pan de Vida began as a small initiative that fed 100 families every Friday; however, after COVID-19, the organization expanded by partnering with the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Through this partnership, over 1.8 million people were fed throughout the pandemic, and the program could feed over 6,000 families per week by June 2020. In addition to distributing food, Pan de Vida and the New Vecinos program, also under New Life Centers, connect families to housing and meal programs. For asylum seekers in Chicago, for instance, New Vecinos helps newly arriving families move into apartments while Pan de Vida connects them to community services. The organization prioritizes community building by connecting families to fresh food and caring relationships.

Source: New Life Centers of Chicagoland. (2023, December 13). Pan de Vida Food Distribution. New Life Centers. https://newlifecenters.org/en/programs/pan-de-vida-food-distribution/

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June 14, 2022. A Pan de Vida market opens in Little Village. 

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Did your perception of the students, families, or community change based on this experience?

As I worked with others to place fruits and vegetables into plastic bags, I learned that many of the volunteers I worked with that day had been volunteering for months, some even years. I was also surprised to see a friend from middle school, who received special education services, helping families carry boxes of fresh produce to their cars. Through this experience, I came upon two valuable realizations, the first being that a harmonious effect comes with contributing to and experiencing community support. Not only was I helping connect families to fresh produce by packing fruits and vegetables, but I also benefitted from teamwork when I couldn't carry a heavy box or when I needed to quickly restock bunches of celery into a box so that each person moving along the line could have some. My second realization was that while we have an innate desire to help others, we don't always know how to help. Thus, we need teachers, coordinators, managers, etc., to guide those who are new to an experience or field and provide all the necessary tools to produce positive and life-changing results. My perception of community certainly expanded through this experience, as I now understand that it takes a union of teachers and students and a willingness to learn to truly make a difference.

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May 11, 2024. After packing fresh produce into plastic bags, volunteers arranged the food in a line and were assigned to either restock or hand the bags to families as they moved their way along the line. 

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How does this impact your instruction and/or support for your students?

During Sunday service on May 11, one of Midway's New Life pastors shared that we provided fresh food to over 400 people. While I did not anticipate it to be that many, I realized that more than eighty hands made that possible - not merely my own.

Because of this experience, I now have a unique, first-hand account of the value of teamwork and the value of helping others. My objectives were to help connect families in the Midway area to fresh food and interact with the food pantry's coordinators to inform my students' families of the different resources the program offers; however, I now have a third objective, which involves implementing more opportunities for my students to learn from and help each other in the classroom. As special education teachers, we may often fall into the trap of helping our students while simultaneously limiting their opportunities to grow. This may lead them to believe they are helpless, and if they cannot help themselves, they will not be able to help others or contribute to a collaborative environment. To that end, as the end of the 2023-2024 school year approaches, I will help my students develop their awareness of their capacity to help others by increasing the number of partner or group activities in the classroom and acknowledging their generous behaviors and team efforts.

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Google Form responses as of Wednesday, May 15. 

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To share this experience with my students' parents, I sent a Google Form with a signed acknowledgment feature via email. So far, I have received a response from one-third of the parents who received the email, which is about four people. I will remind my students to ask their parents to check their emails so that they learn more about the resources near them.

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Teaching Practice and Community Engagement

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Teaching Practice and Community Engagement

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What might you do to intentionally connect your practice to develop family and/or community engagement?

Helping my students become aware of their capacity to help others in the classroom can spark an interest in community service and involvement. Moreover, as they transition to and navigate settings outside of the academic environment, facilitating problem-solving and decision-making opportunities in the classroom is undoubtedly beneficial. By reading passages about teamwork and learning about how different environmental issues (i.e., pollution and food insecurity) affect their communities, my students will be able to identify changes they can make at school or in their communities and begin proposing creative solutions. As far as developing family engagement, maintaining consistent and two-way communication with my students' parents will help me suggest learning activities that can be done at home. This way, what my students learn in the classroom can be extended to activities outside of the academic environment, and they can begin to make connections between the communities they're a part of.