There are a wide variety of community service options that benefit different communities in many ways. Working at the Good Samaritan Inn and Mercy Gardens was a service learning opportunity that benefitted a large amount of people. The Good Samaritan Inn is an organization that provides food to feed the hungry people of the Decatur area. The Good Samaritan Inn serves approximately 300 people every day of the week. Mercy Gardens is a non-profit organization that grows healthy, organic food that will be used to make meals for the hungry at the Good Samaritan Inn. Along with providing food to the hungry, Mercy Gardens also provides opportunities for low-income Decatur residents to learn about gardening and to get real work experience. These citizens
…show more content…
According to Cummins, areas with the lowest incomes and the least educated residents are also the areas that have higher rates of obesity (Cummins, 2005). The citizens living in low-income areas often suffer the most from lack of access to healthy and affordable food options. This results in many people being forced to buy cheap unhealthy food or resort to eating at cheap fast food chains that surround low-income areas. Poor neighborhoods have higher density rates of fast food restaurants such as McDonald 's and places similar to it. A study by Lewis shows that unhealthy fast food options in Los Angeles were much higher in low-income areas, especially areas with higher percentages of African Americans (Lewis, …show more content…
As the human population grows so do the industries and factories that supply goods and services to those people. More products being made means more pollution to the air, water, and soil. The amount of chemical waste generated in the US alone is over 4 billion pounds according to the Story of Stuff (Leonard, 2007). This huge amount of chemicals generated is mostly due to industry and mass production factories and not the individual. When people live closely together each individual may only pollute a small amount but when every individuals ' actions are put together the damage we are doing to the Earth is far beyond repairable. Hardin states in his article Tragedy of the Commons, "The rational man finds that his share of the cost of the wastes he discharges into the commons is less than the cost of purifying his wastes before releasing them. Since this is true for everyone, we are locked into a system of 'fouling our own nest '” (Hardin, 1968). Pollution is just one consequence of the growth of the human population. The way we handle where we put toxic substances can be defined as an act of environmental racism. Many of the toxic dump sites in urban areas are often found in locations where the residents are low-income families and/or minorities. In Bell 's book An Invitation to Environmental
According to Cummins, areas with the lowest incomes and the least educated residents are also the areas that have higher rates of obesity (Cummins, 2005). The citizens living in low-income areas often suffer the most from lack of access to healthy and affordable food options. This results in many people being forced to buy cheap unhealthy food or resort to eating at cheap fast food chains that surround low-income areas. Poor neighborhoods have higher density rates of fast food restaurants such as McDonald 's and places similar to it. A study by Lewis shows that unhealthy fast food options in Los Angeles were much higher in low-income areas, especially areas with higher percentages of African Americans (Lewis, …show more content…
As the human population grows so do the industries and factories that supply goods and services to those people. More products being made means more pollution to the air, water, and soil. The amount of chemical waste generated in the US alone is over 4 billion pounds according to the Story of Stuff (Leonard, 2007). This huge amount of chemicals generated is mostly due to industry and mass production factories and not the individual. When people live closely together each individual may only pollute a small amount but when every individuals ' actions are put together the damage we are doing to the Earth is far beyond repairable. Hardin states in his article Tragedy of the Commons, "The rational man finds that his share of the cost of the wastes he discharges into the commons is less than the cost of purifying his wastes before releasing them. Since this is true for everyone, we are locked into a system of 'fouling our own nest '” (Hardin, 1968). Pollution is just one consequence of the growth of the human population. The way we handle where we put toxic substances can be defined as an act of environmental racism. Many of the toxic dump sites in urban areas are often found in locations where the residents are low-income families and/or minorities. In Bell 's book An Invitation to Environmental