In an effort to continue BME's tradition of making a difference in the world around us, the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering joined forces to support the St. Ann soup kitchen's Christmas dinner/food drive. St. Ann's soup kitchen is well known in the Lafayette community for not turning anyone away. Their bagged dinners are given out free of charge and are available to anyone, no questions asked. At Thanksgiving, they served over 1,200 families, but, unfortunately, an estimated 100 people had to be turned away when they ran out of food.

The BME staff, faculty and graduate students gathered together on Friday, December 18th and brought in their favorite cookies or holiday treats to share, plus an item for the food kitchen. By the end of the day on the 18th, we had four large cardboard boxes full of boxes of macaroni and cheese, cans of baked beans, cans of vegetables and fruit, and store-bought pies. There were also four coolers packed full of hams and turkeys, and $237 in cash donations collected. All of the collected food items were taken to the soup kitchen on Saturday, December 19th, where they were sorted and re-packaged, ready to give out to needy families on Monday, December 21st.

Thanks to the generosity of our BME family, other families will not go hungry this Christmas.