With leadership from the Reading Hospital Magnet Champions Team, Reading Hospital employees have donated approximately 35,000 items to Helping Harvest as part of its 2023 Piece Per Person Food Challenge. The donations will help fill 5,000 weekender bags of food that Helping Harvest sends home with the children of the Reading School District. These donations help assure that the children will have two breakfasts, two lunches, and two snacks over the weekend. The challenge began on January 18 and concluded on Friday, March 3.
Rebecca Price, MSN, RN, CV-BC, Nursing Unit Director, is leading the initiative. “Helping Harvest reached out and asked if the hospital would be interested in partnering with them for the Weekender Bag Program,” she said.
Ms. Price continued, “This event is very near and dear to our hearts, and it is something our employees look forward to annually. Not only are we helping our community, but there is an element of competition that people thrive on! I think everyone is even more driven this year because they know they will be helping to feed the children in our community.”
“I thank the Magnet Team Members, and all the employees who donated, for their efforts to make this event an overwhelming success,” said Barbara Romig, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Chief Nursing Officer for Reading Hospital and Tower Health. “This year, we had 113 departments participate in the challenge. We had three collection dates and were able to donate more than 35,000 items to Helping Harvest.”
Charles F. Barbera, MD, Reading Hospital president and CEO, added, “Our team members are committed to the overall health and wellness of the community, in addition to the great care they provide to patients in the hospital or one of our other facilities. For everyone to pull together to help ensure the children in our community have enough to eat, speaks to the quality of character of our team members. I am so proud of them.”
About Reading Hospital
Reading Hospital is the flagship, Magnet Recognized, acute care hospital of Tower Health. Located in West Reading, Pa., Reading Hospital is a 697-bed hospital that is home to many top-tier specialty care centers, including Reading HealthPlex, McGlinn Cancer Institute, Miller Regional Heart Center, Emergency Department, Level I Trauma Center and Beginnings Maternity Center, which houses the region's only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). With more than 1,000 physicians, specialists, and advanced practice providers across 49 locations, Reading Hospital has been recognized for its quality outcomes and clinical expertise across services lines. It is listed as one of America's 100 Best Hospitals for four consecutive years (and moving up to America’s 50 Best Hospitals in 2022) and received a 5-Star Rating from CMS two years in a row. For more information, visit towerhealth.org.