The competition was on once again at North Fulton Hospital with the annual Feed the Need Food Drive.  By the end of the week, the combination of food donations and money ($1 equaling two pounds) came to 18,838.4 pounds.  This far exceeds any food drive effort the hospital has ever done.

Specifically, the results of the food drive are as follows:

•  6,561 pounds worth of food collected
• $6,138.70 worth of monetary donations collected

With every dollar donation equaling two pounds worth of food, the total “poundage” came to 18,838.4.

North Fulton Hospital concluded another exciting National Nurse’s and Hospital Week today with several exciting events and celebrations.  With numerous, Jeopardy-style employee forums, a week-long food drive competition, hospital picnic, and Relay for Life preparations, the hospital has been quite the busy place! 

National Hospital Week occurs every year in May and is a time to honor those who make caring for others their job.  Each year North Fulton Hospital combines this week of activity with a motivation-through-competition food drive to benefit North Fulton Community Charities.  Each food drive team competed for the top prize, bragging rights as being the winner of the Annual Feed the Need Food Drive.

“North Fulton Hospital is proud to be sponsoring its third Feed the Need food drive benefiting North Fulton Community Charities,” explained Patty Barton, Director of the Business Office at NFH and on e of the organizers of the food drive.  “The enthusiasm and generosity of all hospital departments is commendable. Hospital Week is the perfect time for our facility to give back to our community through this worthwhile organization.”

The week began with all employees separated into five teams, each lead by a member of the Senior Administrative Team and designated by a color (red, blue, yellow, orange, and green).  As the days progressed, so did the sneaky competing strategies.  First, teams encouraged individual members of other teams to defect.  It wasn’t long before entire teams defected to others.  By Friday, only two teams were left standing: Team Purple (formerly Team Blue and Team Red) and Team Rainbow Sherbert (formerly teams Yellow, Orange and Green).  The competition was strong, encouraging even more excitement for the food drive.

The final minutes of the food drive competition flew by as employees enjoyed the annual hospital picnic.  It was during this event that last ditch efforts were made to put teams over the top.  In the end the Purple team proved to be victorious with 11,770.8 pounds worth of donations (Team Rainbow Sherbet ended with 7,067.6 pounds worth).  At the end of the day, however, the true winner is North Fulton Community Charities, a community organization the hospital has proudly supported for many years.

After the Food Drive and Picnic, employees gathered together to attend the Roswell area Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.  Lap after lap, teammates pounded the pavement to help stomp out cancer.

“This is a cause that sits very close to our hearts,” explains Debbie Keel, CEO of North Fulton Hospital.  “Cancer touches us all in some way, so North Fulton Hospital is proud to support the American Cancer Society and its efforts.”

North Fulton Hospital (NFH), part of Tenet Georgia, is a 202-bed, acute-care hospital located on Highway 9, Alpharetta Highway, in Roswell.  Opened in 1983, NFH serves North Fulton and surrounding counties through its team of over 1000 employees, 400 staff physicians and 200 volunteers.  NFH is a state-designated Level II trauma center and provides a continuum of services through its centers and programs, including neurosciences, orthopedics, rehabilitation, surgical services, gastroenterology and oncology.  The hospital is fully accredited and also is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency.