By: Joe Siegel/TRT Reporter
Catherine D’Amato, the President and CEO of The Greater Boston Food Bank, will be presented with the Dr. Susan M. Love Award at the 20th Women’s Dinner Party May 7 from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. at The Westin Copley Place.
“This is certainly a very big honor, but more importantly it recognizes the disproportionate impact hunger has on women and children,” Catherine D’Amato, president and CEO of The Greater Boston Food Bank said. “Providing healthy food helps to build healthy communities, and reduces the incidence of chronic diseases among women and children. Fenway Health and The Greater Boston Food Bank are devoted to insuring that these vulnerable populations have access to much needed nutritious food and support.”
The Love Award is given in honor of its founding recipient, Dr. Susan M. Love, a pioneer in the fields of women’s health and breast cancer. Love helped found the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center in 1992 and currently heads up the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation which is dedicated to eradicating breast cancer.
The Greater Boston Food Bank is New England’s largest hunger-relief organization. She has been an advocate for the hungry for more than 25 years, working tirelessly to engage others in corporate and civic communities to support this important cause.
“Catherine D’Amato has been a longtime supporter of Fenway Health and a champion for Women’s Health issues for decades,” said Philip Finch, Vice President of Development and Communications at Fenway Health. “She is a perfect choice for the Susan Love Award.”
“Women and single mothers make up a disproportionate number of people lacking access to both high quality and ample quantity of nutritious food. Catherine’s work at the Greater Boston Food Bank directly addresses this crisis and helps women and their children live healthier lives,” Finch added.
D’Amato assumed her leadership position at The Greater Boston Food Bank in 1995 after heading up the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and, before that, the San Francisco Food Bank. As a result of her stewardship, The Greater Boston Food Bank has been transformed into a nearly $63 million charitable business, an organization that now leads the region in providing nutritious food to approximately 550 member hunger-relief organizations. These agencies annually serve more than 394,000 – and possibly as many as 545,000 – hungry residents of the nine counties and 190 cities and towns of eastern Massachusetts. The Greater Boston Food Bank distributes more than 34 million pounds of food and grocery products annually.
D’Amato currently serves on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Boston Foundation, the Massachusetts Food Association, and Basic Health International.
This year marks the Women’s Dinner Party’s 20th anniversary as an elegant fundraiser for Fenway Health that brings together more than 1,200 lesbian, transgender and bisexual women and their friends and supporters for a night of dinner and dancing. To find out more information about the Women’s Dinner Party visit:www.womensdinnerparty.org.
