North Fulton Regional Hospital celebrates another food drive success as employees banded together to collect over four tons of food.  All items collected will benefit North Fulton Community Charities.

     As an active steward in the community, North Fulton Regional Hospital is proud to pool its resources to benefit local organizations.  This year’s food drive was open to all employees and active physicians of the hospital as well as to members of the community who wished to donate food items.

     A friendly competition ensued as organizers of the drive, including employees Sara Rucker, Janine Pass and Ella Tepp, sought to increase participation among hospital employees.   Every employee was assigned a team, each lead by a member of the administrative team.  The team with the most pounds recorded on the final day of the drive was crowned the victor of the event.  This separation into teams fostered spirit and excitement among employees hospital-wide.

     On Monday, February 12, the final day of the drive, collection took place outside on the driveway of the hospital.  Public donations were accepted from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m.  At the conclusion of the drive, North Fulton Regional Hospital had collected more than 8,000 pounds of non-perishable food items as well as some monetary donations.

     “We’ve never had more than 200 or 300 pounds in the past,” said Tepp.  “The competition certainly helped garner support, and doing it for a limited time helped, too.  You give people just four days and they can’t put it off.”

     In addition to the items collected during the food drive, North Fulton Regional Hospital, through the Tenet Health Care Foundation, presented a check for $5,000 to North Fulton Community Charities.

     Ella Tepp already has big plans for 2008’s food drive.  “Next year we would like to promote it through the Southern States Region of Tenet Health Care as a competition between all the hospitals for bragging rights.”