The College of General Studies does not offer any courses in business or management, but a group of CGS students have started doing their part to help the economy this year.
A new CGS community service group, which kicked off with its first event a few weeks ago, will tackle any kind of volunteer work necessary to counteract the effects of the recession, organizers said.
‘I think this is a great way for students to help out families in this community, especially in this economy,’ CGS Student Government member Angela Tisone said.
CGS Student Government started the group with CGS Student Services Counselor Miriam Miranda Albert in December. Although there are currently only ten students involved, Albert said she hopes more will participate in the future.
The group collected change for Greater Boston Food Bank’s Brown Bag Program in the CGS lobby for three days in late February. The Brown Bag program helps local senior citizens and families in need by giving them a supplemental bag of groceries.
They raised $231.73, enough to buy 297 canned protein items for the program, more than doubling their original goal of 128 cans.
‘Across the country, a lot of food banks and pantries are just overwhelmed,’ Albert said.
Albert said she came up with the idea for the fundraiser through her membership in Boston Cares, a volunteer organization that sends out emails with options for helping the community. She said one of the ideas was to focus on a food drive.
‘Rather than collecting cans, we decided to collect change,’ she said.
CGS Student Government President Anthony Vaglica said because students do not typically have cans, raising money was more practical.
Boston Food Bank spokeswoman Stacey Wong said even small fundraisers can help organization keep up with need increases in Eastern Massachusetts.
‘For the past 6 or 7 months . . . we’re tracking about eleven percent higher in terms of client load,’ Wong said.
The Boston Food Bank is the largest food bank in Massachusetts and aggregates supplies and then ships them out to food pantries in places like Brighton, Quincy and Somerville, Wong said.
Even under normal economic circumstances, Wong said food banks generally have some difficulty meeting the demand for their services.
‘Even before the economy went south, we weren’t keeping up with the need,’ Wong said. ‘We are advocating for money from the state.’
Last year, Wong said the Massachusetts Food Aid Program was cut by about $1 million, which legislators have since restored. She said the state currently provides about $12 million dollars to the four food banks.
Wong said the organization also has to deal with rising food prices.
‘We hope that they would recognize that the need for food is strong and growing,’ she said.
Vaglica agreed that the fundraiser came at a key time for the Food Bank.
‘There’s always needy people that need food, but with the current economic situation it’s probably even more important that we help those less fortunate,’ Vaglica said.
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