Cereal Campaign Benefits Local Food Bank
Sometimes, starting your day off with a healthy breakfast isn’t as easy as it sounds.
For the nation’s hungry, even a bowl of cereal can be out of reach. To help, the Erie County Medical Society (ECMS) organized a month-long food drive in 2006 called “Start Your Day Off Right.”
The drive—which was spearheaded by Eardly Wickramasinghe, MD, the ECMS treasurer—challenged Erie County medical practices to collect healthy cereals for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest PA.
“Healthy cereal is a very popular item there, and they have a lot of kids that they serve,” said Wickramasinghe, who goes by Dr. Wick.
When the drive was over, the county society had collected 2,017 pounds of cereal and 823 pounds of other assorted foods for the food bank.
“We were quite happy with the collection that we got and the participation of the number of offices. We were really targeting family practitioners, but we got cereal from everybody,” Dr. Wick said.
ECMS also used the opportunity to educate patients on the benefits of a healthy breakfast and promote the food bank—displaying pamphlets in participating practices.
Last Updated: 12/30/2008