Community involvement can involve volunteering, but it’s so much more than that. Being involved in things like a charity, rotary club, chamber of commerce and economic development council events, having a seat on a board for a local non-profit is all considered community involvement.
Nearly 40 million Americans live in poverty, and 39 million lack such bare essentials as access to healthy food stores. Seventy-three million Americans rely on Medicaid, and nearly half of college students struggle to pay for food, while more than half of low-income Americans age 50 and older say they want a healthy diet but can’t afford it. If America is a land of plenty, there is a large majority of individuals who would say the flip side of prosperity is scarcity.
My interest in working and volunteering for local organizations goes back to my first job after graduation at a center serving the mentally challenged. It was such rewarding work and really exemplified for me, a recently emigrated Iranian-American, the potential of the American dream.