As always, this week was an absolute blast and flew by in a flash! I have enjoyed getting to know my colleagues and I am excited to grow my relationships with them as I continue through the summer.

This week has been heavily focused on the donation request for CHA’s Taste To Remember fundraiser event that will be happening on August 29th, 2024!. Taste To Remember is Children’s Hunger Alliance Central Ohio premier fundraiser event that features tasty bites from local chefs and restaurants, drinks, live and silent auctions, along with a wine and bourbon pull. I am really excited to be helping out with such an amazing event but most importantly what I love is all the proceeds from Taste To Remember will support CHA’s initiatives to make sure children have access to nutritious food in Central Ohio and throughout the state.

Primarily I worked a great deal with the team on soliciting Taste To Remember donations from various businesses for the live and silent auctions. Thankfully at the end of week two I can confidently say that I have finally been getting the hang of my role of requesting donations. For the auction in August, we have been focusing on gathering donations for 8 key categories: food, breweries/distilleries, goods, entertainment, sports, self-care/relaxation, jewelry/accessories, and miscellaneous.With doing this I have quickly learned the art of rejection. I’m not going to lie initially; getting rejection letters hurts especially when you don’t know the reason why. However, as the week went on and other acceptance to donation requests came in, my mindset toward rejection shifted. I realized that rejection is simply redirection for bigger and better things to come. Throughout this process, I am learning to fully embrace the journey, making the sweet taste of victory even more delightful. As our list of businesses to contact keeps growing, our goal is to make this the most expansive live and silent auction that Taste To Remember has had yet!

During our learning session at the Columbus Foundation, we watched an inspiring and captivating TED Talk on discovering our “why.” Watching this video reminded me of the importance of focusing on our personal and professional purpose rather than just the “what” and “how” of our actions. Our “why” is our guiding light, that will keep us focused and determined, especially in challenging times. This week has been busy for me at Children’s Hunger Alliance, but I love it because the more work I do, the more I understand and gain from this fantastic experience.