The theme for Legacy Health’s two-week food drive was “May no one go hungry.”
The contributions from the staff at the Salmon Creek hospital will make that a reality for some Clark County families.
From May 18 to 31, the employees at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center collected the equivalent of 9,472 pounds of food — 1,622 pounds of food and $1,602, which will be used to purchase 7,850 pounds of food. (The Clark County Food Bank purchases an average of 4.9 pounds of food with each dollar donated).
All of the food and money will be delivered later this week to the Clark County Food Bank for distribution to local food banks and meal programs throughout the county.
“It’s easy to get caught up in pounds and boxes,” said Brian Willoughby, hospital spokesman, in an email. “Then you stop for a minute and think about people, the 60,000 folks in our county who aren’t sure where their next meal is coming from, and you realize this is more than pounds and boxes. This is community. This is taking care of our own.”
Legacy hospitals and clinics in the past have held small drives throughout the year. This year, however, Legacy is holding two systemwide drives: the food drive and a sock drive this fall. The socks will go to people who are homeless and patients who come into the emergency departments in need of clean, dry socks, he said.
The goal of the food drive was 1 pound per employee, for a total of 10,000 pounds. The systemwide total isn’t in yet, but Legacy Salmon Creek nearly reached that goal on its own.
“Our mission statement includes the line, ‘Our legacy is good health for our communities,'” said Bryce Helgerson, the hospital’s chief administrative officer, in an email. “Access to food is essential to good health, and I’m pleased to see so many of our staff living our mission and giving back to our local community so generously.”
The Legacy Salmon Creek staff did have some help. Ten-year-old Lacy Robbins, a fourth-grader at Daybreak Primary School in Battle Ground, contributed 369 pounds of food.
Lacy learned about the food drive from her mom, Susan Frederick, a registered nurse case manager at the hospital. Lacy had a classroom lesson on altruism and had to come up with a charitable activity. She decided to hold her own food drive for the project and collected nearly six times her body weight to contribute toward the Legacy effort, Willoughby said.
In addition, an anonymous donor gave $500 on behalf of the hospital’s Family Birth Center, Willoughby said.
