Lasell Men’s Basketball Teams Up with the Greater Boston Food Bank

Lasell Men’s Basketball Teams Up with the Greater Boston Food Bank

Boston, Mass (01/18/2013) – On  Friday January 11th the Lasell College men's basketball team spent the afternoon working with other volunteers at the Greater Boston Food Bank, helping inspect, sort and package food donations for distribution to various hunger relief organizations. The Lasers fifteen players, along with head coach Aaron Galletta and assistant coach David Copeland were part of a team of forty volunteers that donated their time and energy to the project.

The team received training in food safety at the beginning of their shift, and over the course of three hours the volunteers sorted just over 5,000 pounds of food. The 5,161 pounds of food that was sorted during the three-hour shift is the equivalent of 3,880 meals, which is almost enough food to feed a family of four for an entire calendar year.

Junior captain Rob Roy thought his teammates really took a lot from the afternoon.
"It was a good team building event, and it always feels good to give something back to the community" Roy said, "but it was great to see how much people can accomplish in such a short amount of time when they work together, and how much that can benefit families in need."
Last year the Great Boston Food Bank had more than 14,000 volunteers give of their time, totaling 40,000 hours of service collectively. The time donated provided $800,000 worth of value to the organizations efforts.

Head coach Aaron Galletta felt his team learned some valuable lessons from the afternoon, saying "I know our team really grew by seeing what a large impact people can have when they give back just a little of their time."  

"It helped our players gain an appreciation for the value of hard work when you break it down in terms of dollars, cents and quantity of meals it really drives the point home" Galletta said.

This was the first year the men's basketball team has partnered with the Greater Boston Food Bank, but it is something that the program plans to continue in the future. 

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