With donations and support from Geisel Student Government and the Fran Field Fund, medical students donated $1,386 to purchase non-perishable food supplies for Molly’s Place and drafted community grants to provide sustainable funding for the food pantry during the medical school’s fall community service day. Dartmouth Health Children’s Molly’s Place at the CHaD Family Center provides resource coordination to at-need pediatric households and provides emergency dry pantry and child wellness supplies to help address family needs.
Organized by the community service day planning committee, including second-year service representatives Pauline Mochama ’25 and Ernie Tao ’25, Mochama says, “While our spring service day was centered on establishing a relationship between Geisel and Molly’s Place, for our fall service day, it was important for us to both deepen this connection and work towards establishing sustainable funding streams in support of CHaD.”
Tao says, “There are so many resources in the Upper Valley aimed at assisting community development—we hope to just leverage a small part of this to address food insecurity among CHaD families.”
First-year service representatives Julia Byrd ’26 and Kelsey Plona ’26, both noted the incredible resource Molly's Place is for families. “Their dedicated team provides medical education materials, clothes, strollers, and food to countless families in need,” Byrd says. “We were honored to have the opportunity to work alongside Molly's Place in support of their continued dedication to our community,” Plona adds. “We can't wait to see what other good things are to come!"
