Helping Hands: Delivering Food to Seniors in the Community

Written By: Catherine Kim, Third-Year Student Pharmacist


Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series of Helping Hands stories authored by School of Pharmacy faculty, staff, students, trainees, and alumni who stepped up to assist their family and friends, colleagues, and communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

St. Mary’s Outreach Center is a social service organization that aims to help older adults meet the challenge of living self-sufficiently with dignity and respect. Over the past year, the organization was able to help more than 900 seniors. It has been serving the greater Hampden community for more than 15 years.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the School of Pharmacy’s student chapter of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, including Priya Kavalam, Emily Frances, and me, as well Sarah Brandt, an intern from the School’s Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging, have had the opportunity to volunteer with St. Mary’s Outreach Center to distribute food to older adults. Through this experience, we were able to work alongside other individuals from a variety of backgrounds to prepare and deliver food to neighbors in need. It was a wonderful experience, and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet and support older adults in the area.

Through this initiative, we were also able to support statewide “shelter in place” efforts by enabling our neighbors with the highest risk to stay home, while still having access to nutritious food. We are proud to represent the School of Pharmacy and grateful for the opportunity to help others during the pandemic.

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