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Ontario Shores and its Nutrition and Food Services (NFS) is #RisingUp to serve its community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NFS team have been doing things differently since the start of the pandemic. Outpatients have been struggling with meeting their basic everyday needs due to the closure of many soup kitchens and food banks. Those that remain open are facing a short supply and this has negatively impacted the Ontario Shores community.
When it was identified that patients within the community were struggling with securing food, NFS jumped into action.
To keep up with the demand, NFS staff took an innovative step to serve their community to meet the struggling needs of outpatients. They are cooking hearty, homemade meals and portioning them into individual servings to allow for patients to easily store and heat the food when needed.
In addition, Ontario Shores kicked off a food drive and food and nutrition services reached out to their food distributors for donations. Ontario Shores received food donations from Nestle Professional, Smucker’s, Arthur Rogers, Kellogg’s and Frantastic Café to name a few.
The non-perishable food donations that Ontario Shores has received from the community and staff were sorted by members from Communications, CEOD and Volunteer Services and then packaged for distribution to the patients.
To facilitate the distribution, the NFS team worked closely with offsite clinicians to deliver the care packages to the clients. The collaboration between the teams was seamless - another example of Ontario Shores putting the care of patients as their top priority.
“At Ontario Shores we are like family and when someone in your family is in need you do anything humanly possible to help them out, not because you have to but because you want to,” notes Jennifer McDonald, Manager of NFS.
“Going above and beyond to ensure no one is left behind or struggling during such a difficult time makes me proud to be part of a team that works tirelessly to meet the needs of those struggling.”
The food drive has been overwhelmingly successful and the response the hospital has received from the community is truly a testament to Ontario Shores’ strategic directions: Be Caring, Be Extraordinary, Be Bold and Be Inspiring.
For more information regarding the food drive and how to donate please visit https://www.ontarioshores.ca/foundation/ways_to_give/food_drive.
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