Feeding Hope received a $510 donation from Our Blood Institute’s Greater Good program.
A ceremonial check was presented last week at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Center & Library and the funds are a result of the recent Boots and Badges blood drive between the Durant police and fire departments.
“We did our very first Durant Boots and Badges blood drive and they chose Feeding Hope as their charity for Greater Good and they exceeded our number,” said Michelle McGuire, senior account manager for OBI. “We went 15 percent over so that’s why we were able to give them a check today for $510. We really like these type of events because No. 1, it helps with our collections in our times of need but we’re also able to give back to the community.
“We’re really trying to grow where we can help more (non-profits) in our communities and are able to give out more money each time.”
Feeding Hope, formerly called Families Feeding Families, has been providing meals to the community since 2004 and they serve food on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Keithley Park. Their building on East Florida Street is almost finished and soon, they will be serving from that location.
Keri Juarez, executive director of Feeding Hope, is excited about the donation.
“Boots and Badges is from the fire department and the police department and they donated blood,” Juarez said. “They choose a charity of their choice and Feeding Hope was the recipient of that. We are just going to be able to use these funds in our new building. We’ll be able to buy supplies, we’ll be able to evolve, we’ll be able to use it for food purchases or maybe even items in the kitchen.”
Juarez said the building will be opening in March.
“So, we will be able to utilize those things for maybe cleaning supplies or things that we didn’t really have to have before,” she said. “Maybe bills or things like that.”
McGuire said OBI is in urgent need of blood and she encourages people to sign up and donate.
“The next step will be a blood emergency which means we only have a one-day supply of blood and we really need everyone’s help to come out and donate blood so that we are able to meet the hospital needs.
“If anyone is O-negative blood, we are really low on O-negative blood inventory, so we’re just calling out to the public to please go to obi.org and find a blood drive on our website. All you have to do is click find a blood drive, put in your zip code and it populates all of the blood drives in your area.
“We’re really trying to prevent a blood emergency but with fighting against all of the sickness, it may be inevitable. It’s statewide.”
