Greenwich Hospital

Greenwich Hospital employees collaborated with #GiveHealthy for an food drive that ultimately collected and donated enough food to provide 2,353 meals to local food pantries!

Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) recently announced that it concluded its employee driven healthy food donation program as part of the #GiveHealthy Movement. The goal was to provide fresh fruits, vegetables and other healthy food items to help hunger-relief organizations throughout the state and region during the winter months when donations are fewer.

System-wide, Yale New Haven Health collected over 22,550 pounds of food during two months of the #GiveHealthy drive. That equates to 18,792 meals.

Closer to home, Greenwich Hospital collected 2,823 pounds of food equaling 2,353 meals. Local hunger relief organizations receiving from the drive included Caritas of Port Chester, NY and Neighbor to Neighbor.

“Winter is always a difficult time of year for families living in poverty,” said Bill; Cusano, executive director, Caritas of Port Chester. “Thank-you for all you are doing and your generosity.”

Other participant hospitals met with similar levels of success! Bridgeport Hospital collected 5,229 pounds of food equaling 4,358 meals. Lawrence + Memorial Hospital collected 4,727 pounds of food equaling 3,939 meals. Westerly Hospital collected 1,579 pounds of food equaling 1,316 meals. Yale New Haven Hospital collected 8,192 pounds of food equaling 6,827 meals.

“Food insecurity has always been a problem for people in our communities, but COVID-19’s economic impact has meant that even more people can’t afford enough food to feed themselves and their families,” said Nancy Hamson, system director, Community Health Improvement, YNHHS. “In response, YNHHS was very eager to collaborate with our partners at #GiveHealthy with our first online food drive. We invited employees and medical staff throughout YNHHS to support hunger-relief organizations in the communities where they live and/or work.

The employee food drive was conducted through #GiveHealthy, an organization that provides an online platform for hunger-relief organizations to set up “registries” listing items they need. YNHHS employees, departments and medical staff supported one or more hunger-relief organizations in YNHHS delivery networks’ communities. Because the food was shipped from suppliers directly to hunger-relief organizations, donors were able to purchase healthy food items, including fresh produce.”

“The 42 million plus people struggling with food insecurity also face high rates of diet related health issues – things like obesity, diabetes, cancer – due to a lack of access to healthy food. A lot of food that gets donated actually worsens these health conditions. What was needed were healthy food donations and that was our goal from the beginning,” said Augusta Mueller, community benefit manager, Yale New Haven Health. “#GiveHealthy enables people to donate fresh fruits, vegetables and other healthy food to improve the health of our communities.”

YNHHS’ drive was developed and organized through a system-wide collaboration among Community Health Improvement, Community and Government Relations, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Human Resources, Marketing and Communications and Food and Nutrition.

Learn More About Yale New Haven Health: https://www.ynhhs.org/

Featured Photo courtesy Greenwich Hospital.

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