Hey Retrievers 

Are you looking for a meaningful way to give back to our community? Join Retriever Essentials! We're a student-staff-faculty partnership dedicated to supporting food access on campus — and right now we need volunteers to help make a difference. 

Why It Matters

• Retriever Essentials provides free groceries, toiletries, baby supplies, and meal swipes to any UMBC community member who needs them. 

• Food insecurity among college students is real. Having access to nutritious meals and essentials supports students' physical and mental health, and helps ensure they can focus on their studies. 

What You Can Do

• Volunteer at the "Essential Space" free-store, help with food distribution, or support events like our Free Farmers' Market. 

• Help spread the word, donate items if you can, or contribute by supporting meal-swipe sharing. 

Getting involved is easy — just sign up via this link: Meal Recovery Sign-Up Sheet.

Every bit of help counts. Let's come together as a UMBC community to make sure no Retriever has to worry about their next meal.

Visit Retriever Essentials myUMBC page for more info!

Thanks & Go Retrievers!

Final stretch of the semester? We've got something just for you.

Free Community Acupuncture for Finals Week Stress
Friday, December 12, 2–3:30 PM
Center for Well-Being, Room 118 (Drop in anytime)

Getting ready to move out or just doing some spring cleaning? Consider donating your gently used items to the Retriever Re-Store, UMBC's move out donation collection program that aims to redistribute the items to other students who can give them a new life!

Donate items such as:

Kitchen appliances 

School supplies

Small furniture 

Desk organizers

Decorative items

Arts + Crafts 

Pots/pans and dishes

Mirrors

Non perishable food items

and more! 

At this time, we will NOT accept clothing, bedding, or items that should be trashed.

You can find donation collection bins near your RA desk in each residence hall, the ACC lobby, and Walker clubhouse starting today, December 8th through the close of the residence halls! Shop for free from collected donations at the Retriever Re-Store pop up shop in Upper Flat Tuesdays.

Want to drop off donations directly to the store? Schedule a drop off appointment with us via email at sustainability@umbc.edu

Help us divert waste from the landfill and redistribute pre-loved goods for free among our campus community! Email the Office of Sustainability at sustainability@umbc.edu with any concerns or questions.

LHGSA & BGSO Collab Event

Holiday Chill Event: Study, Play Games, Hot Cocoa

Take a break from finals mode and join OGSL tomorrow for our last Grad Retriever Breakfast of the semester! You've worked so hard these past few months—papers, projects, late-night study sessions, all of it—and you deserve a warm, comforting start to your morning.

We'll have a cozy spread of breakfast sandwiches, seasoned potatoes, and assorted fruit juices (see flyer for full menu!) to give you the fuel you need to power through finals week.

Come cozy up with us, grab some breakfast, breathe for a minute, and celebrate everything you've accomplished this fall. 

Follow OGSL on myUMBC so you never miss an update or event!

Don't just read it, FEEL it through our newly edited wrap-up video, celebrating all the people who made The Art Life happen.

The question is something like, "how do we build bridges between people who are different from one another?" How do we build a harmonious culture of giving, openness, and learning? A safe space shielded from the incessant and persistent urge to do something, to be something, to live a phantom life, living in dreams of tomorrow but not acting in the now? It's weird, I'm describing opposites: don't do everything, but do something right now. Imagination is vital to make something happen, but it can be a misleading force. If we focus on a distant point, working and working, it becomes a routine and a fragile husk of a life if it loses the essence of why we do it. We need to build the life-force, the spontaneous communities IN PERSON so we can get at the things that really matter - finding other people, and finding ourselves. Following our personal legends.

If we need this so much, why should we wait to create it? Hence, The Art Life is that space exactly, and it keeps expanding.

The Art Life put together a series of concerts on campus this semester in Lecture Hall 1 to the FA Amphitheatre to Flat Tuesdays showcasing UMBC arts: live music, poetry, and the visual arts. We raised close to five hundred dollars for charities supporting the unhoused in DC, Gritty Kitties, and Catonsville Emergency Services.

Seventy people attended the last couple of shows, almost two hundred followers on the Gram', and there are a million ways to get involved in Spring 2026… murals on campus (which yearns for color in these bleak times,) an Involvement Fest for Arts orgs and initiatives on campus featuring live performances and flea markets in collaboration with the (seb), and artists who'd like to bring their art to a show.

Our website has all the ways you can get involved, regardless of what you can currently do. Art is a way of life, and it is for everyone. Why wait?