As is our annual practice, the department participated in the Campus Food Bank’s  12 Days of Giving food drive during June.  The drive has a list of food items to be collected for each of the 12 days, and prizes are awarded based on amounts given by departments across campus. We collected 11 full 12-day hampers plus some additional items this year.  Final results in the competition won’t be known until later in July.  We’ve won in the past (5 times!)  and we’ll wait to see how we fared this year, but we know the main winners are those who benefit by what we’ve been able to give.

A recent update from the Alumni office advised us that the Douglas and Beatrice Hall Bursary, which is largely funded by Biochemistry employees, has now reached over $40,000 in pledges and donations.  The bursary is paid each year to a 3rd year Biochemistry or Nutrition student based on the interest collected.  When all current pledges are fully paid, the annual award should be approximately $1,400 per year.  Donations are still being accepted

Planning has been underway through June for a major power outage affecting the campus the weekend of July 6^th. Power to most buildings on campus is affected so preparation is a major undertaking for lab personnel.

Planning is also underway for the MUN all years’ reunion, Havin’ a time.  All department members are encouraged to participate in some way as we welcome home our alumni.  The Biochemistry event is Friday August 10^th; see the reunion site for details.

We received sad news on three former department members in June.  Dr. Norm Haard, who was a faculty member here in the 70s and 80s, died June 29 in California.  Dr. Luckshman Jayakody, who received his MSc and PhD in Food Science under Dr. R. Hoover’s supervision in 2001 and 2008 respectively, died in Sri Lanka on June 8^th. Dr. Richard Fagan, a graduate of our BSc Honours program in 2008 and MUN Medical School in 2012, died on June 14^th.