Nurses Provide Food to Hungry School Children

Nurses at Murphy Medical Center collected 4,013 food servings to benefit needy children of Cherokee County as part of their celebration of Nurses Week,
May 6-12.

Mary O’Connor, Staff Development Coordinator at the hospital, said that when the nurses’ Professional Practice Council learned of the need for food donations, the thought of hungry children in their own community tugged at heartstrings. 

“Nurses’ Week traditionally honors nurses, but when our caring nurses heard that some children in preschool and Headstart programs were going hungry during weekends, our nurses decided to celebrate with gifts from the heart,” O’Connor said.  “Donations of individual, nonperishable, serving-sized foods just poured in and friendly competition between departments added a lot of fun to the project.”

The Professional Practice Council joined with volunteers of St. William Catholic Church of Murphy to provide the food.  St. William’s parishioners had teamed in January with Ranger Baptist Church’s existing backpack ministry food program. Using a grant, St. Williams concentrated on providing food for younger aged children. 

Michelle Calascione, Director of Religious Education at St. William Catholic Church, stated, “A grant we had previously received to help with our food donation program had expired, so the food donations from Murphy Medical Center’s nurses were more than welcomed. They were vital to keeping us going until we can obtain a new grant.

Murphy Medical Center nurses encourage the public to donate food items Monday through Friday, 8am to 3pm, at St. Williams Catholic Church, 765 Andrews Road, Murphy.  Information may be obtained from the church by calling 828-837-2000.