Hunger-Relief and Hockey Go Hand-in-Hand at GSDM

The Boston University Chapter of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) recently hosted a food drive benefiting The Greater Boston Food Bank. Members of the GSDM community who donated non-perishable food items between February 4 and 12 received one ticket for every two food items (with a limit of two tickets per person) to the Boston University Terriers Hockey game on Friday, February 12 against the University of Maine Black Bears. Two hundred tickets to this game were generously provided to GSDM by the University. The Terriers won the game 7 to 4.

The Greater Boston Food Bank distributes food to more than 600 hunger-relief agencies in Eastern Massachusetts. Some members of ASDA had volunteered at the local Food Bank in the past and their positive experiences inspired ASDA to organize the drive.

A bounty of food was collected—289 pounds to be exact—and volunteers Rani Shah DMD 11 and Mike Visser DMD 10 accompanied ASDA Faculty Advisor Dr. Joe Calabrese to deliver the donations to the Food Bank on February 17.

"The outpouring of support and donations that we received from the GSDM community for this drive was overwhelming," said Dr. Calabrese. “Workers at the Food Bank expressed sincere gratitude and appreciation when we dropped off the donations. They were especially impressed that dental students would take time out of their busy school schedules to help those in our community who are less fortunate." Dr. Calabrese continued, "I wish that all those who contributed could have been at the Food Bank to see the impact their efforts made."

Photos from the hockey game and of the collected donations are available on GSDM’s flickr account and Facebook page.