Food Drive

During the first week in December the GSA held a food drive at three of its larger events. Grads at the General Assembly meeting, Pizza Night, and Coffee Bagel Donut Day all donated nonperishable food and cash to the Food Bank of Yolo County. A few programs even had their own drives run by grad students. On that front special recognition needs to go out to the Comparative Pathology Department who gathered up four big boxes of food and a nice wad of cash for the food bank. All together the GSA drive collected 273 pounds of food and 113 dollars for the Food Bank. Since they are able to provide $11 dollars worth of food for every dollar donated, that makes the cash portion of our drive worth over $1200 to those in need in Yolo County. Thanks so much to everyone who helped make the drive a success!

We're all well aware that the vast majority of grad students aren't exactly rolling in dough. Teaching and Research Assitantships and departmental funding typically provide enough money for a grad to live on, though living on that funding may require a fairly basic lifestyle.

So why throw a food drive onto the backs of grad students - many of whom might describe themselves as simply "getting by?"

Because they are getting by. And there are entirely too many people out there who aren't.

The Yolo County Food bank estimates that in our little patch of California 30,000 residents may be living with the threat of hunger. And while graduate school may mark a low point for disposable income in many of our lives, it also comes with the promise of an advanced degree, one that most of us will parlay into a reasonably well-paying job.

We may not have much to give at this point in our lives but the need is entirely too great right now for us to wait.

• The GSA General Assembly Meeting on Wednesday, December 2nd from 6-8pm in the Cabernet Room of the Silo
  

• The fall quarter Grad Pizza Night at Woodstock's Pizza (219 G Street) on Thursday December 3rd from 5-7pm
  

• Coffee-Bagel-Donut Day on Friday, December 4th at the GSA Office in the South Silo

For more information about the Yolo County Food bank, check out their website.
And for a nice summary of the work done by the Food Bank, check out the article on page 8 of this month's Davis Food Co-Op Newsletter.