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Contact: Liz Carroll
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E-mail: carroll@gcc.mass.edu

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Release date: October 11, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Students collect 247 pounds of food for Food Bank

In response to appeals from the Human Service Club and the Health Occupations Division, the GCC community came through with generous donations of canned goods and checks for the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. On Friday, September 24 th, Ed Polwrek, Crystal Cummings, and Lisa Stevens loaded the canned goods and drove them over to the Food Bank in Hatfield, where they weighed in at 247 pounds.

"This was an idea generated by the members of the Human Service Club,” says Abbie Jenks, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for Human Services. "They heard the plea from the Food Bank and approached me almost on the first day of school about doing a food drive. So we quickly organized and in one week's time we collected the food. Two very generous staff contributed money as well. Some of the food that we took was collected by the Health Occupations Division, who were conducting their own drive.”

This was an extra project of the Human Service Club, which has been growing in members and visibility. "We get people other than human service majors involved in it,” says Jenks, "and the good news from my perspective is that more and more people are becoming actively engaged in their community.”