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Simmons College Employees Honored For Hunger Relief Work

BOSTON (August 23, 2006) — An employees group at Simmons College has been honored by New England's largest anti-poverty agency for more than 20 years of fundraising efforts to help relieve hunger in the Mission Hill/Fenway area of Boston. It is the first time a college group has been recognized by ABCD, Inc. (Action for Boston Community Development).

The Simmons College Staff Council - a voluntary group of Simmons employees which has donated more than $70,000 in total proceeds from its annual faculty/staff silent auction to the Parker Hill/Fenway Emergency Food Bank - will receive an ABCD Community Award at the agency's annual Community Awards Dinner on November 3.

ABCD officials say that proceeds from the Simmons fundraiser represent the largest single donation the Parker Hill/Fenway Emergency Food Pantry receives annually. For the past five years, the auction has raised between $6,000-$9,000 each year.

Simmons employees spend months preparing for the auction each year by requesting donations from local vendors, restaurants, sports teams, and members of the staff and faculty. Past items up for bid have included professional sports tickets, a pan of homemade lasagna, overnight hotel stays, hand-knitted blankets, original artwork, and a day-long tour of Buzzard's Bay with the former college president on his boat.

The ABCD Parker Hill/Fenway Neighborhood Center serves more than 1,600 people a year with services including a food pantry, a senior center, and computer training. There are 15 ABCD affiliate centers throughout Boston, including Parker Hill/Fenway Area, Allston/Brighton, and Dorchester.

Simmons College (www.simmons.edu) is a nationally recognized private university in Boston.  It includes an undergraduate college for women and graduate programs for women and men in social work, health studies, library and information science, management, and liberal arts.