Employees' "Food Bank" Helps Local Families

>>> Linda Young (right), senior administrative assistant in the biological sciences department, coordinates a program distributing employee-donated food to local families in need. Beverly Galusha (left), secretary of the library group, hands Young a box of groceries collected by LITS employees during one of three weeks that LITS gives food each year.

Many folks get the urge to help others around the holidays, but an MHC employee-organized effort helps local families long after the Thanksgiving turkey's eaten and Christmas decorations and menorahs are put away. Coordinator Linda Young, senior administrative assistant in the biological sciences department, says the effort involved nineteen departments last year, its sixth in providing food from November through May. Each department chooses a week and collects groceries (and sometimes treats like MHC T-shirts, books, or sidewalk chalk) for two area families, which are then delivered to the South Hadley Council on Aging for distribution to the families twice each month.

Young says the families are struggling on very limited incomes. Many are single mothers; some are attending college, too. In addition to assisting families in need, Young says the program "gives positive recognition to the College, and makes all of us feel better too. Sometimes I think we get even more out of it than the recipients."

Anyone interested in joining the "food bank" effort should email Linda Young (lyoung).