My Experience at FMSC

This semester I decided to volunteer at the organization called Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). This organization is non-profit and their most important goal is to feed God's hungry children. They do this by packing "meals specifically formulated for malnourished children, and we ship these meals to our distribution partners". A total of 92% of all donations go directly towards feeding the starving. Also, with each meal cost 22 cents, it only takes about 80 dollars to feed one child. In 2014, FMSC made over 1 billion meals and continues to do extremely successful! (FMSC, 2014)

Feed My Starving Children website: https://www.fmsc.org/

I went to volunteer for three different sessions:
April 16th, from 9:30 to 11:30am (2 hours)

April 30th, from 9:30 to 11:30am (2 hours)

May 1st, from 6:00 to 7:30pm (1.5 hours)

Total: 5.5 hours

I volunteered at the Aurora location for the FMSC organization. I went with other students from Lewis to each session. I noticed when I got there that not many people are ever there, at least when I was there. Soon after that buses full of 3rd graders showed up one of the days, and you can only imagine how crazy it got after that. There are many different roles to take on at the kitchen. You can be a scooper (scoops ingredients and throws them into bag), bagger (holds the bag underneath the funnel to catch all ingredients), weigher (weighs and adjusts the weight of the bags), or sealer (uses a machine to seal the bags air tight). I was both a bagger and a scooper. It was fun because whenever we would finish a whole box full of food bags, we'd chant a saying specific to our table. Everyone was in a joyous happy mood, but at the same time you could feel some tension because of how fast we were going. We were all very determined to get as many bags done in the short amount of time we had. There was loud music playing, so it was easy to hum along. The atmosphere was really something to appreciate, it didn't even feel like I was doing service. It felt more like I needed to be there, as if this is something normal that all people should be required to do. One effective interaction that is very important with me, was the prayer that was said at the end of the session. At the end of every single session, a prayer is said so that the food gets safely to those who need it. At my first session one of the girls that came with her school said a beautiful prayer that made all the adults tear up because of how amazing it is that a young child understands the troubles of the world and wants to help. 

I learned that I definitely need to help out more!! It was my first time going to FMSC this semester and it really was an awesome experience! I am definitely going multiple times this summer to help some more. The adrenalin I felt when I was at the organizations was something I had never felt before. The way that I knew that the little help I'm giving is helping so many children in need makes me feel special and important. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be spending many more hours at the FMSC this summer :)

Revisions of Thesis (I'm weird and I want to keep all of them)

Modeling in the fashion industry seems to be about creating new trends, but studies show that modeling can actually lead to a life full of eating disorders, drug abuse and a distorted view on self image.

The fashion industry and modeling seems to be about creativity and developing new trends, but studies show that modeling can lead to a life full of eating disorders, drug abuse and a distorted view on self image.

Allowing Sources to Speak

Quote one: "Modeling Stole My Confidence And Gave Me An Eating Disorder"

""I was defined by being a model, and if I gained weight I wouldn't be a model anymore. I told myself I needed to stay skinny to be relevant and attractive. Who would pay attention to me if I were average? I'd been riding this skinny model wave for the past few years. The thought of not looking like a model was frightening."

1. Model Melissa Stetten talks about how modeling took over her life and that without modeling she thought that she was nothing. She was not important enough or relevant enough to live on.

2. Modeling caused model Melissa Stetten much distress in her life. She believed that in order to be important and keep people noticing her was to stay on a very strict diet that was slowly killing her. She was worried that without modeling she had nothing.

3.

Quote two: "Former Victoria's Secret Model Accuses Industry of Promoting Deadly Eating Disorder & Exploiting Young Girls By Making Them 'Sell Sex' "

" 'I went as far as doing crazy crash diets to lose the weight after my agency called me fat and told me that I needed to lose weight off of my thighs and hips. I did very unhealthy things to lose the weight, but I was told if I didn't do it I wouldn't book jobs and become successful.' "

1. Model Kylie Bisutti talked about the insane diets she would do in order to lose weight because the modeling agency she worked for would tell her to lose some inches because her thighs and hips were starting to look a little big. The model would go such far lengths to lose because of fear of failure and not getting booked for any jobs.

2. Victoria Secret model, Kylie Bisutta, was pressure by her agency to stay harmfully skinny in order to be able to be booked for jobs. She went to detrimental lengths to keep the weight off in fear of being unsuccessful.

3.

I believe that the fashion industry is putting pressure, and an extremely high amount of pressure at that, that is causing fashion models to create a life style that is slowly killing them. There are too many accounts of models begging for their lives to change because they have been sucked up by the way of life that the modeling industry has insisted that they live. Kylie Bisutti, former model of Victoria's Secret was interviewed by Savannah Guthrie. The model talked about her belief of how the Industry is taking over the lives of models and brainwashing them into thinking "skinny is beautiful." Bisutti talked about her experience of trying to keep her model body. " 'I went as far as doing crazy crash diets to lose the weight after my agency called me fat and told me that I needed to lose weight off of my thighs and hips. I did very unhealthy things to lose the weight, but I was told if I didn't do it I wouldn't book jobs and become successful.' " Bisutti thought that staying disturbingly skinny is the only thing that would make her successful. Her mind was so fried by the idea of this perfect body, that she forgot what a healthy body looks like. She was disgusted with herself because she ate half a bagel that morning. This is what the industry makes the models involved think. Similarly, another model named Melissa Stetten wrote a tell all story about how she struggled with an eating disorder because of her struggling in the modeling industry. "I was defined by being a model, and if I gained weight I wouldn't be a model anymore. I told myself I needed to stay skinny to be relevant and attractive. Who would pay attention to me if I were average?" She believed that she needed to stay detrimentally skinny in order to be important. These two models are only one of millions of models that struggle to be noticed and important in the modeling industry. It has become so much of a problem that models are beginning to believe that the only way to be successful is to be so skinny that even thinking of food makes their stomach wrench in pain and disgust.

Connecting your Sources: Creating a Conversation

Source A:
Are Fashion Models a Group at Risk for Eating Disorders and Substance Abuse?
by: Paolo Santonastaso, Silvia Mondini, Angela Favaro

• This evidence that this article supports other my sources because it helps me explain the outcome of the eating disorders that a big majority of the models in the fashion industry have. This source provides hard facts that include things like an actual case study, symptoms, and ways of treatment.
• This source does not refute any of my other sources. It only keeps the ball rolling in explaining why the fashion industry has a terrible effect on models all over the world. Although, recently my wonderful College Writing teacher provided an awesome article that told me about a new law that was set in the fashion industry that could actually cause a decline in the eating disorders, which could mean a decline in this area of problems around the world.
• The article can help the reader fully understand what an eating disorder looks like. It can also draw a picture for how much of an affect eating disorders have on the fashion industry and even beyond just the runway. 
• I would introduce this article as more of a science professor. The article provides more hard facts and is pretty emotionless in describing what the disorder looks like. The case study also describes a more serious, and to the point person that is here to state the facts and be on there way. 

Proposal

In my paper, I will be talking about the fashion industry and the effects it has on the models that are a huge part of the industry. I will also be talking about the unfortunate outcome that a majority of models that must deal with: a life full of drugs, alcohol and eating disorders. Of course, among many other things. The first question I will ask myself while writing this research paper, is if all or most models have eating disorders? Is this is a problem that needs to be considered and thought about? I want people to understand that this is a huge issue and that it's actually inevitable for girls and boys in the fashion industry to be exposed to this crazy and life threatening life style. I can use the source I found about anarexia nervosa and talk about the symptoms and signs that lead to an eating disorder. I also would like to talk about forms of treatment Another question that I want my paper to answer is what is exactly an eating disorder? How does drug abuse effect a person? This is important to explain because it shows people how severe the problem is. I want to include the many personal stories I have found in my sources that illustrate the true meaning of an eating disorder and dealing with drug and alcohol abuse. I also want to touch on how the industry could potentially be creating waves and not only be hurting their models but also girls and women at home that watch the models, which will answer my final question of whether or not models create a bad idea of self image to other women and how?

Working Thesis: Modeling in the fashion industry seems to be about creating new trends, but studies show that modeling can actually lead to a life full of eating disorders, drug abuse and a distorted view on self image.

Annotated Bibliography

Dwyer, Angela. "Disorder or Delight? Towards a New Account of the Fashion Mode Body." Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 8.4 (2004): 405-423. Web. 22 Mar 2015.

This article talks about the way that the fashion industry thinks of the woman’s human body and how it is affected by things like anorexia and bulimia. How it is supposed to look, how it looks more appropriate to be a model etc. The article talks about the distorted look the modeling industry has on the body and what a human’s body is supposed to look like. I can use this article to discuss how the model industry has changed their views so much on the human body and how much smaller models become every year compared to how things were long ago. A negative, though, is that the when trying to find out info about the author, I could not find anything that said she was a trusted source of correct information. When reading the article, I noticed that she used plenty of trusted sources and her information was very logical therefore making the article credible.



Föcker, Manuel; Knoll, Susanne; Hebebrand, Johannes. "Anorexia Nervosa" European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 22.S1 (2013): 29-35. Web. 22 Mar 2015.

This article could be especially helpful in that it can help me explain to my readers the possible outcome of the stresses of modeling and the pressures that the model industries put on them. The article provides very specific descriptions of the eating disorder of anorexia nervosa. It also has many statistics that show the severity of this disorder. The article also provides many means of treatment and the possible ways to overcome Anorexia. When finding out more about the authors, I noticed that every single one of them has at least a PhD in the medical area and definitely knew what they were talking about. This as well as the logical and knowledgeable information provided in the text, makes the article a reliable source for me to use in my paper. The article also provided numerous means of treatment which I can include in my paper to show options for people that are suffering from these disorders.



“Modeling Stole My Confidence And Gave Me An Eating Disorder” Radar Online. n.p. 15 May 2013. Web. 27 Mar 2015.

In this article, a former model for Melissa Stetten, talks about how she believes that the fashion industry forced her to be extremely unhealthily skin promoting not only crazy unattainable body images for women everywhere but it also made the models in the industry have distorted body images and make them create terrible eating habits, along with other unhealthy habits like drinking problems, taking illegal drugs to attain the body images that the fashion industry pressures these girls to have. I can use this article to further show how the fashion industry affects the models in a negative way. It can help me explain for a model’s point of view about the dark side of modeling. Although this is a personal article that a random model made, I believe that it could bring a lot of ethos to my paper. This is important so that I can make my paper more personal and not only made up of facts because the issue is so damaging to not only the models but also younger girls that view these models in magazines, commercials, online etc.



Pearson, Catherine. “Fashion And Eating Disorders: How Much Responsibility Does Industry Have?” Huffpost Healthy Living. n.p. 13 Sept 2011. Web. 27 Mar 2015.

This article talks about the fashion industry being the main reason for all the horrible effects that have taken a toll on models and all the girls that watch the growth, or more like the loss, of the models throughout history. The text discusses how the industry has done so many things wrong that they have had to put so many guidelines that they must follow. There are many pieces of information that I can use from this article. When they discuss the guidelines that the industry must now follow, I can talk about how and why these guidelines needed to be put into place. The article also gives many specific statistics coming from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders that would be helpful to include in my paper to further explain the horrifying efforts that the industry has made on the body images of women across the globe.



Santonastaso, Paolo; Mondini, Silvia; Favaro, Angela. "Are Fashion Models a Group at Risk for Eating Disorders and Substance Abuse?" Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 71.3 (2002): 168-172. Web. 22 Mar 2015.

This article provides very specific things that I can discuss throughout my paper. The article talks about the risks that models are already put at the second they start working for the modeling industry and how this affects their health both mentally and physically. I can use these points in my paper to show how models are already at such a higher risk of eating disorders just by being in the industry. The case that was conducted in the study proved that fashion models do in fact have a higher percentage of illegal use of substances and are at a higher risk of developing eating disorders.I can use this case study further show how models are actually in fact at a higher risk of having a life full of eating disorders. The journal this article comes from is a reliable source because of all the educated doctors that have written in it.

3 citations for Annotated Bibliography

modeling: should models have a necessary minimum weight limit?

1) http://www.jstor.org/stable/20132834?seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents

Föcker, Manuel; Knoll, Susanne; Hebebrand, Johannes. "Anorexia Nervosa" European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 22.S1 (2013): 29-35. Web. 22 Mar 2015.


2) http://search.proquest.com/docview/235448003?pq-origsite=summon

Santonastaso, Paolo; Mondini, Silvia; Favaro, Angela. "Are Fashion Models a Group at Risk for Eating Disorders and Substance Abuse?" Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 71.3 (2002): 168-172. Web. 22 Mar 2015.


3) http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=50d91495-05f6-41db-8eec-81d648458237%40sessionmgr4004&vid=0&hid=4209&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=a9h&AN=14762730

Dwyer, Angela. "Disorder or Delight? Towards a New Account of the Fashion Mode Body." Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture 8.4 (2004): 405-423. Web. 22 Mar 2015.