By Emel Hyusein, YES 2016-2017, Bulgaria, hosted by AYUSA in San Antonio, TX

When I first learned I was going to come to the U.S. and be a YES student, I was most excited about the community service aspect of my stay here. I have always wanted to volunteer, but unfortunately, I don't have many opportunities to do that back in my country. I decided that when I came here I would fully embark on the journey of volunteering. At first I didn't really know how to volunteer, but then different opportunities started to pop up. I had already done a variety of community service activities, when one day, my host mother said I should try and volunteer with the food bank here in San Antonio. From that day on my life changed completely...I changed completely. I have completed 120 volunteer hours so far, and I would never change the ones at the food bank.

At first, I worked in the warehouse, sorting thousands of pounds of food that had been donated. After that, I got to see the second step of how the food is prepared. My host mother and I volunteered at the community kitchen where all the food was made into meals. I had never seen that big of a kitchen in my life or that much food. But the most amazing part was when we actually got to give the food to the people. I was standing behind the counter, looking at the huge cafeteria and thinking, “there is no way there are that many hungry homeless people.” I couldn't have been more wrong. When the huge front doors opened hundreds of people started waking in.

From elderly to children, from black to white, they were all united here by their hunger. And everyone was so grateful. I scooped up stew 495 times that day and there wasn’t a single person that didn't say “thank you” or “God bless you.” I was overwhelmed with emotions. I felt so much joy and happiness, but also sadness at the same time. This was the only bright moment of these people's day. After one hour, they were going to go back into the cold and angry streets of the big city. The volunteer coordinator must have noticed because when we were done distributing the food she pulled me to the side. She told me that she would never change this job because we were what she called “hunger fighters,” both fighting hunger and feeding hope. This place was where people came to find hope and it's where they saw what they shouldn't give up. I will continue to keep fighting hunger and feeding hope.