Flock Feast:
Flock Feast a club at Lincoln, works to provide food for Lincoln families and the surrounding community. They do this by making sack lunches and providing groceries for people to pick up or have delivered for free.
Flock Feast partners with the counseling office to ensure anonymity for the family; either students or parents can request aid. They also work in conjunction with Clay Street Table, a food bank on SW Park Avenue, where the club meets.
Director of Clay Street Table Paul Davis said he appreciates the partnership with Flock Feast and the service they provide.
“It’s such a huge gift that we’re giving to people to say ‘you don’t have to worry about the food that we’re going to help you with,’” said Davis, “and then people can focus on the other things that may be concerning.”
The club will be facing changes in the next year. Originally, the pantry was used for food storage, but because of a pipe burst during the 2024 ice storms, the pantry has been relocated.
“[We are] planning on turning [the old pantry] into a grocery store-esque pantry,” said junior Audrey Farrimond, president of Flock Feast. “Flock Feast’s job moving forward is gonna [be] stocking the shelves, which is something we’ve never done, but I’m super excited to get to be part of the weekly pantry process that Clay Street Table does.”
Mission: Citizen:
Mission: Citizen was founded 15 years ago by six Lincoln students.
“Mission: Citizen is a student-led… nonprofit that offers free citizenship classes for local immigrants sitting for the naturalization exam to obtain citizenship,” said senior Clara Finkelstein, co-director of communication at Mission: Citizen. “We also provide scholarships to students who need them so that they can take the naturalization test without being financially burdened.”
At each location, students lead weekly lessons to help immigrants pass their naturalization test – a test about US history required to gain citizenship – and provide scholarships to those who pass a cumulative mock exam at the end of the term to take the actual naturalization exam.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Mission: Citizen has also been providing online classes for immigrants who can’t take the lessons in person. Co-director of communications and Lincoln senior Dorothy Cui plans for more online classes in the organization’s future.
“Our main goal right now is to expand the population of people that we serve and get more students specifically,” said Cui, “So we’ve been collaborating with local organizations that help these individuals and general communities of them.”
Mission: Citizen also helps students who volunteer with the club develop essential skills like communication and organization.
“Usually nonprofits are a very elaborate process. You usually have adults working in these positions, but we are … around eight high schoolers trying to run this organization,” said Finkelstein. “It can be really difficult because we don’t have much prior experience… But what I’ve found personally is that communication is really important and it’s one of the most valuable skills that I’ve learned from working in Mission: Citizen.”