Student-run auction benefits seven New Haven-area charities

The annual student-run Hunger and Homelessness Auction, held last November, raised $30,000 for seven area charities. According to Barbara Hirschman, a second-year M.D./Ph.D. student and one of the auction’s two co-chairs, local organizations were asked to submit grant applications, and members of the auction’s board, which includes students in medicine, public health, nursing and the Physician Associate Program, paid visits to various agencies to select this year’s seven beneficiaries.

The proceeds from the auction will benefit the Emergency Shelter Management Service, the Community Health Care Van, Loaves and Fishes, Domestic Violence Services, the Community Soup Kitchen, the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen and Caring Cuisine.

For the second year, professional auctioneer Wade Brubacher, father of second-year medical student Jake Brubacher, cut a striking figure in a white cowboy hat as he led the proceedings (see Hunger and Homelessness Auction).