Santa Rosa Medical Center fights hunger during Hospital Week

MILTON — Santa Rosa Medical Center (SRMC) and Santa Rosa Medical Group (SRMG) teamed up during Hospital Week to help support a local food pantry.

Through an eight-team competition, employees and staff donated hundreds of nonperishable items between May 10-14 for Feeding the Gulf Coast food bank.

Santa Rosa Medical Center and Santa Rosa Medical Group employees donated hundreds of nonperishable items during Hospital Week May 10-14 to the Feeding the Gulf Coast food bank.

SRMC’s Hospital Week theme, “Not All Heroes Wear Capes,” incorporated several superheroes and superhero-themed items. On Monday, May 17, Feeding the Gulf Coast collected over 1,550 pounds of donated food from the hospital.

"We had a very successful food drive," said Doug Sills, CEO of Santa Rosa Medical Center. "Our staff stepped up with donations. It was fun to see the friendly competition between the units and offices as the piles of donations grew."

The winning team was the Santa Rosa Medical Group clinics, which consist of multiple family medicine and specialists’ offices in Milton, Navarre and Pace. Santa Rosa Medical Center's first floor received second place, followed by the SRMC Medical Office Building in third place.

Feeding the Gulf Coast, formerly Bay Area Food Bank, serves a 24-county area spanning the Florida panhandle, south Alabama, and south Mississippi. The food bank also operates multiple hunger-relief and nutrition programs, including Summer Meals, Afterschool Meal, Backpack, Disaster Relief, Mobile Pantry and Produce Drop Distributions and Nutrition Education.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosas Press Gazette: Santa Rosa Medical Center fights hunger during Hospital Week