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Valley Baptist Health System on Wednesday celebrated its ninth Healthy Over Hungry Cereal Drive by donating more than 3,000 boxes of cereal and $2,500 to the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley.
Food Bank CEO Libby A. Saenz said the money will enable the Food Bank to provide 12,500 meals to Valley families in need, while the cereal will help provide an important part of breakfast to more than 9,000 children, as the average family in the Valley has 3.1 kids.
Valley Baptist CEO Leslie Bingham said the idea for Healthy Over Hungry came from Valley Baptist’s parent company, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare. Valley Baptist in Harlingen and Brownsville have conducted Healthy Over Hungry drives since 2014.
“Our mission it to create health for life,” Bingham said. “Hunger and food insecurity have a huge negative impact on heath. So what we say within our own community is ‘yes we’re a hospital and we take care of people who are sick, but our ultimate responsibility to the community is to help people stay out of the hospital,’ so anything we can do to promote healthy habits or to address health in the community is part of our mission.”
Saenz said each dollar the Food Bank receives enables the organization to buy $5 in food, so Valley Baptist’s donation stretches the Food Bank’s budget.
The Food Bank states on its website that 98% of its expenditures are directed towards program services, ensuring that donor’s contributions are helping feed as many as possible.
The Food Bank RGV was incorporated in 1986 and serves Cameron, Hidalgo, and Willacy counties. It is the 49th largest food bank in the U.S. based on distribution.
