North Fulton Regional Hospital celebrates another food drive success as employees banded together to collect over 3,500 pounds of non-perishable food items. All items collected will benefit North Fulton Community Charities and The Community Action Center in Sandy Springs.

     This food drive effort started where the previous left off. In February of this year, North Fulton Regional Hospital employees stepped up to the plate and donated over 4 tons of food, making it the most successful food drive in the hospital’s history.

     While this food drive did not meet the poundage reached by the last effort, it remains one of the most successful attempts. According to employee and former food drive organizer Ella Tepp, “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.”

     The friendly competition that began with the February drive continued as organizers of the drive, lead by Director of the Business Office Patty Barton, sought to increase participation among hospital employees. Every employee was assigned to a team, each lead by a member of the administrative team; each team could be identified by a type of firework, in honor of Independence Day. 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.

     As an active steward in the community, North Fulton Regional Hospital is proud to pool its resources to benefit local organizations. This season’s food drive was open to all employees and active physicians of the hospital alike.

     On Monday, July 2, the final day of the drive, collection took place outside on the driveway of the hospital. At the conclusion of the drive, North Fulton Regional Hospital had amassed 3658.3 pounds of non-perishable food items as well as some monetary donations. CEO Joe Austin’s team, “Austin’s Artillery,” surpassed the other five teams with a total of 1,857.2 pounds of food.

     Food Drive organizers hope that with each effort, the bar will continue to be raised, hopefully reaching the 10,000 pound mark.

     North Fulton Regional Hospital (NFRH), part of Tenet Georgia, is a 167-bed, acute-care hospital located on Highway 9, Alpharetta Highway, in Roswell. Opened in 1983, NFRH serves North Fulton and surrounding counties through its team of over 1000 employees, 400 staff physicians and 200 volunteers. NFRH 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, bariatric surgical weight loss, 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.

     To learn more about the Food Drive at North Fulton Regional Hospital, Tenet Healthcare Foundation, or North Fulton Regional Hospital’s efforts in the community, log onto www.northfultonregional.com.