LewisGale Medical Center donates $20K grant to Feeding Southwest Virginia

Salem, VA — LewisGale Medical Center awards a $20,000 grant and almost 1,000 pounds of canned goods to nonprofit Feeding Southwest Virginia. Hospital colleagues earned the donation funds by winning both first place in its divisional food drive as well as second place in an enterprise-wide food drive sculpture contest hosted by the hospital’s parent company, HCA Healthcare.

“Our colleagues continually show up for our patients, their families, and our communities,” said Amy Woods, chief nursing officer. “We are elated to make a significant donation to such a worthy organization that helps our friends, families, and neighbors.”

For this year’s “Healthy Food for Healthier Tomorrows Food & Nutrition Drive” contest, hospital colleagues used approximately 800 canned vegetables and nearly 150 boxes of stuffing to construct a human-sized “Etch A Sketch”. The structure weighs more than 800 pounds and was one of three national winners selected to receive an additional grant to a local food bank.

Feeding Southwest Virginia was founded in 1981 and commemorates over 40 years of fighting hunger and changing lives through community partnerships. The food bank has a network of 380 partner programs in a 26-county, nine-city region that provides food or meals to those in need.

“We are grateful and honored of this gift from LewisGale Medical Center and the HCA Healthcare Foundation,” said Bob Frampton, chief operating officer of Feeding Southwest Virginia. “We’ve had a longstanding partnership with the hospital and these funds will not only strengthen our organization, but also benefit our community.”

Food insecurity, the lack of consistent access to enough food to have an active, healthy lifestyle, affects one in nine American families. The United States Department of Agriculture reports that 17 million U.S. households were food insecure at some point in 2022.