Cereal Drive Nets Thousands of Cereal Servings

Desert Care Network’s Healthy Over Hungry® Cereal Drive Collected 89,697 Cereal Servings Because Breakfast Doesn’t Take a Summer Vacation

PALM SPRINGS, JOSHUA TREE AND INDIO — Desert Care Network (DCN) announced Friday that its hospitals collected a total of 89,697 servings of cereal, to be shared with local food banks.

The Desert Care Network’s two Coachella Valley hospitals, Desert Regional Medical Center and JFK Memorial Hospital collected cereal to benefit FIND Food Bank, a member of the Feeding America network and the Coachella Valley’s only Regional Food Bank.

DCN’s Morongo Basin hospital, Hi-Desert Medical Center collected 46,134 servings of cereal to benefit The Way Station in Joshua Tree.

Included in the serving numbers, Desert Care Network hospitals also collected $11,022 in cash, to benefit FIND Food Bank.

“The donations we collected during our ‘Healthy Over Hungry® Cereal Drive’ will help provide local children and adults struggling with hunger, with a healthy breakfast during the summer,” said Michele Finney, chief executive officer of Desert Care Network. “Good nutrition is essential to good health, and we wanted to help lead the fight against hunger in the Coachella Valley and Morongo Basin. I am so proud of our teams for stepping up to the plate this year to demonstrate that we truly are a community built on care.”

“Hunger is a community problem with a community solution, and each year the Desert Care Network proves their dedication in the fight to end hunger locally,” said Debbie Espinosa, President and CEO of FIND Food Bank. “Our biggest concern for the Desert’s long summer months is to ensure local children have access to three meals a day. This nutrition-focused initiative goes a long way to ease that breakfast burden for families struggling with hunger. Thank you to all of the employees, community members, and residents who showed up for their neighbors in need to provide healthy meals so every child in the Desert Region can feel whole and full.”

FIND Food Bank is the only Regional Food Bank serving the entire Coachella Valley, from Whitewater Pass to Blythe, from Joshua Tree to the Salton Sea. Founded in 1983, FIND (Food In Need of Distribution) is dedicated to relieving hunger, the causes of hunger, and problems associated with hunger by building awareness and mobilizing resources and the community to take action to end hunger. We distribute 10+ million pounds of food assistance annually to an average of 85,000 individuals each month with over 100 based community partners. FIND is a member of Feeding America and the California Association of Food Banks. To learn more about hunger and how you can help, please call FIND at 760-775-3663 or visit FINDFoodBank.org or facebook.com/FINDFoodBank

 

About Desert Care Network

Desert Care Network is an integrated healthcare system consisting of three acute care hospitals and 30 affiliated entities, including ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care centers, clinics and ancillary services, across the desert. The hospitals are Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio, and Hi-Desert Medical Center in Joshua Tree. The Network serves many diverse communities throughout the desert, enabling the more than 125,000 patients we treat every year to access quality, coordinated care and advanced specialty services at convenient locations close to where people live, work and play.