By Hannah Lau / USF ZNews
TAMPA – For the first time ever, USF’s Smile Club collaborated with the Feed-A-Bull Food Pantry for its oral care pantry to prepare dental product donations for students in need.
The “smile bag” assembly was held at the Marshall Student Center on February 3. One-by-one students lined up to participate in putting together small bags with toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash and floss.
Chloe Vanatter, president of the Smile Club and a biomedical sciences major, says she reached out to Feed-A-Bull and asked if they accepted donations for hygiene products.
“Being a college student is very hard, especially if you’re living on your own, paying for your tuition with no assistance from the government, ” said Vanatter. “We seem to lose sight of what is important for ourselves trying to get a degree so before you go to bed brush your teeth and you won’t end up in bad shape.”
Feed-A-Bull Food Pantry, an on-campus organization, “helps to ensure that students do not have to choose between buying textbooks and buying groceries,” according to the Student Health and Wellness Center.
“I didn’t even think about the fact that people that probably can’t afford to like buy more food, um, wouldn’t be able to buy more for their dental hygiene,” said Hendranie Henry, an attendee and student at USF. “Knowing that what I’m doing here can like, you know, positively impact somebody who could be in my classes, has been, yeah, rewarding.”
In Florida, more than 7.1 million residents live in counties where there is a shortage of dental care professionals, according to The Journal of Professional Excellence Dimensions of Dental Hygiene.
The local event was open for members of the club as well as for students who were interested in joining, volunteering, or simply doing a good deed for others.
Participating students were also able to earn volunteer hours for their work.
This was not the first time the Smile Club worked with another on-campus organization.
In March of 2023, the club and Operation Smile came together to assemble dental health care bags for the homeless.
As the club’s first time collaborating with Feed-A-Bull, Vanatter says she can only imagine that the students whom these care packages are going to are very grateful for the services and products that they have to offer.
Vanatter said she and a group of pre-dental students created the Smile Club in the spring of 2023 after attending an event hosted by the Pre-Dental Society.
The group of pre-dental students said they felt like USF needed a club that was able “to give back to the community regarding oral health.”
After the event, attendees got to participate in a dental school Kahoot while also enjoying a slice of pizza and soda.
With 300 “smile bags” assembled, the club plans to hold more events like this in the future and continue to promote awareness for “preventative measures against future decay and infections.”
For students interested in picking up a bag, they can visit the Feed-A-Bull Food Pantry at the Marshall Student Center or USF Health during their business hours.