Week 2 Reflection

It’s insane that we are nearing the end of Senior Project! I am sad to be leaving Spectrum but know without a doubt that I’ll be back. Spectrum’s Drop-In Center is a safe and welcoming place for young people (14-24) “ to eat a meal, use a computer or phone, do laundry, get clothing, take a shower, and get other basic needs met”. They have the resources to provide supportive housing, mental health/ substance abuse counseling, and mentoring. They also have the resources to educate the community in a variety of ways. Last Tuesday, we met with a woman named Jess from the Howard Center. The Howard Center provides support and services to address mental health, substance use, and developmental needs. They provide Narcan to the Burlington community, which can otherwise be very expensive. We were trained to administer Narcan ( which reverses an overdose), and what overdose signs to look out for. I’m beyond grateful that Spectrum provided us with this opportunity. I live in a place where opioid overdoses are often common and am going off to college next fall. It only takes one moment to change someone's life forever, but Narcan can completely reverse an overdose and save one’s life. I feel very confident that if I was in a situation, I could administer the medication. 

We started this project by cooking completely Vegan and buying everything in bulk. Every day, we became more confident in our skills and completely switched our methods. We quickly realized that everyone at Spectrum not only likes meat but wants it in every meal. Buying in bulk created more food waste than buying the ingredients we need every day. We’ve been composting all food scraps, and have eliminated a lot of waste with this new approach. Cooking in bulk was frightening and overwhelming at first, but it got easier with every day that passed. Both of our knife skills have gotten significantly better in this time, which is really cool. We are both much more confident in the kitchen now. My biggest tip when cooking in bulk is to break everything up and start with the prep work. The prep work is honestly the hardest and most time-consuming part. When that’s finished, everything comes together easily!