WASHINGTON (August 21, 2012) – On Thursday, August 23, students at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science (SMHS) will put down their books and study materials to help those in need at this year’s Commitment to Community Day. Hundreds of faculty, students, residents, staff, and alumni will spend the day painting murals for clinics affiliated with Operation Smile and preparing 100,000 bagged meals through the Kids Against Hunger DC Metro.
“This annual day of service reaffirms our mission to improve the world around us,” said Jeffrey S. Akman, M.D., interim vice president for health affairs and dean of SMHS. “The murals will provide a warm and welcoming environment for the children as they meet their physicians and have surgeries to fix their smiles that will help them lead more confident lives. The meals will provide hope for families who are suffering from malnutrition and starvation. The experiences of this day will be the beginning of a great journey of giving back to the community.”
Groups will meet at the Charles E. Smith Center in Foggy Bottom at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. for orientation, after which part of the group will paint murals at clinics affiliated with Operation Smile, an international children's medical charity that provides free cleft lip and cleft palate repair surgeries to children worldwide and assists countries in building long-term self-sufficiency with these surgeries.
Another part of the group will work with Kids Against Hunger DC Metro to package 100,000 meals to distribute to local community kitchens in the Washington, D.C. area and to Haiti. This part of the event was organized in partnership with Groupon Grassroots, the philanthropic arm of Groupon. To raise money for the event, Groupon asked subscribers to pledge support with donations in increments of six dollars as part of the Feeding Kids initiative. Each six dollar donation provides 26 nutritious meals. One hundred percent of the Groupon Grassroots campaign proceeds will be used to provide meals to feed hungry kids, both locally and around the world.
Kids Against Hunger's meals have been formulated by food scientists to provide a rich source of easily digestible protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins needed by a malnourished child's body and mind. The meals offer all nine of the essential amino acids required for complete nutrition—something that can't be said about other typical food relief sources such as rice or beans alone.
“We are excited to employ the collective action model of Groupon Grassroots to raise support for the Feeding Kids Initiative,” said Mink Chawla, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at SMHS and co-founder of Kids Against Hunger DC Metro. “We look forward to creating new awareness for Kids Against Hunger DC Metro as one of the local organizations in Washington, D.C. to be featured on Groupon Grassroots.”
