Advancing the oral health of New York’s Hispanic and minority community is a priority for the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM) chapter of the Hispanic Student Dental Association (HSDA). To continue serving the community while being mindful of pandemic-driven limitations such as physical distancing, HSDA members are engaging in projects that provide education and supplies in ways that pose little or no risk of virus transmission.
Recently, the students have been coordinating the distribution of hundreds of toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes in conjunction with the nonprofit organization Catholic Charities, Alianza Division, which operates a weekly food pantry and provides bags of necessities to families in Washington Heights, the Upper Manhattan neighborhood where CDM is situated.
“Because of COVID-19, we haven’t been able to put together the events we usually do. But then we learned about these pantries, and at the same time we learned from our national association that there’s toothpaste available in Reading, Pennsylvania, where the Hispanic Dental Association national office used to be located,” said Carlos Galvez (DEN'22), president of the CDM HSDA chapter. “We said, ‘OK, it’s perfect—that’s something we could do to help the community.’”