To help fight hunger during the month of March, Ross Medical Education Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky hosted a food drive at the campus. Throughout their drive, the staff, faculty, and students collected 2,156 individually packaged food items. Those items were then distributed to children’s backpacks in Warren County Public School District at no cost to the school or the child. The Warren County Public School District has a synergy center where each school is able to organize and give out items to those children that need them.
The Warren County Public Schools Synergy Center was opened in 2014 and strives to serve local students in need. The center itself is located in a warehouse that stores all of the items used to support the students. Over 50% of the area student population is considered low income, so the need for this organization and those that can contribute to it is very high.
While the Ross Bowling Green food drive was taking place, those at the campus contributed a variety of food items. Some of them included poptarts, single serve meals like chef boyardee, and oatmeal. Many children in the local area have a hard time getting the meals they need to be healthy when they are away from school on weekends and breaks. The items that the campus collected and donated will help fill in the gaps for those children when they aren’t at school.
The food will be placed in the backpack and given to chronically hungry children for meals over the weekend. These are kid-friendly, shelf-stable foods that require no preparation or refrigeration. Children can just “open and eat” without any adult supervision. Shante K, a Ross student from the Bowling Green Medical Assistant program, shared that “being able to deliver the items to the synergy center and know that our campus helped feed hungry children was amazing to be a part of.” The synergy center was extremely thankful for the donations from Ross, as they rely primarily on donations from local businesses and community leaders. The center then distributes items to the schools most in need in the area.