Brookwood Baptist Health hosts summer food drive to fight hunger in area

By Jesse Chambers

The United States is a prosperous country, but that certainly does not mean that no one goes hungry.

In Alabama, 788,250 people — or one in 6 people in the state— are facing hunger, according to statistics supplied by feedingamerica.org.

In addition, 226,310 children — or one of 6 in the state — face hunger, as well.

About 23 percent of children and 17 percent of adults are struggling with food insecurity in the state, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health in January.

That makes efforts like a food drive recently conducted by Brookwood Baptist Health so important.

The five hospitals in the system donated a total of 69,846 servings of cereal to assist food-insecure residents across Central Alabama this summer during its recent Healthy Over Hungry Cereal Drive, according to a Brookwood news release.

“Good nutrition is essential to good health, and we want to help lead the fight against hunger across Central Alabama,” Brookwood Baptist Health CEO Tim Puthoff said.

The cereal donations benefited the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, which is located in Birmingham, Manna Ministries of Shelby County and Champion Church in Talladega.

Monetary donations totaling $6,300, which included $5,000 from the Baptist Health Foundation, are to be used to buy more cereal and is calculated into the total number of servings.

Brett Meredith, CEO of the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, expressed gratitude to Brookwood Baptist Health for hosting the drive.

“We know that summer is a particularly tough time for many food-insecure families because children can no longer rely on schools for nutritious meals, placing an added burden on these families,” Meredith said.