Under Colleges Building Community banner, colleges will cooperate to package 25,000 meals for Scranton School District families
Students from several colleges, area nonprofit agencies and Geisinger’s Springboard Healthy Scranton will once again collaborate to feed families in need in the Scranton School District.
Students from Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM), Keystone College, Marywood University, Lackawanna College, University of Scranton and the University of the Sciences will spend the day at GCSOM on Sept. 5 creating a living case study centered on how food insecurity impacts community and then, from 1 to 4 p.m., packaging 25,000 meals that will be distributed to families in the Scranton School District. Families in the Scranton schools identified may sign up for the program. On Fridays, the student is then given enough meals to feed the entire family for the weekend. School officials say that last year’s effort kept the families fed from September to February.
On Sept. 5, building on the success of the 10,000-meal initiative, Geisinger’s Springboard Healthy Scranton initiative and local nonprofit, Here for a Reason will share data on food insecurity in Scranton. Then students will assemble the meals to be distributed this fall to families with children at schools in the Scranton School District. At the schools targeted, a staggering 100 percent of enrolled children qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, increasing the likelihood that their families struggle with food insecurity – a serious obstacle to learning, as well as a social determinant of health that is well within the power of communities to change.
For more information, visit geisinger.edu/collegesbuildingcommunity.
About Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM) is a member of the Geisinger family. GCSOM offers a community-based model of medical education with campuses in Danville, Lewistown, Scranton, Sayre and Wilkes-Barre. Geisinger Commonwealth offers Doctor of Medicine (MD) and a portfolio of graduate degrees. The school’s innovative curriculum, focused on caring for people in the context of their lives and their community, attracts the next generation of physicians and scientists from within its region, as well as from across the state and the nation. Geisinger Commonwealth is committed to non-discrimination in all employment and educational opportunities. Visit www.geisinger.edu/gcsom.
About Geisinger
Geisinger is among the nation’s leading providers of value-based care, serving 1.2 million people in urban and rural communities across Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915 by philanthropist Abigail Geisinger, the nonprofit system generates $10 billion in annual revenues across 126 care sites — including 10 hospital campuses — and Geisinger Health Plan, with more than half a million members in commercial and government plans. Geisinger College of Health Sciences educates more than 5,000 medical professionals annually and conducts more than 1,400 clinical research studies. With 26,000 employees, including 1,700 employed physicians, Geisinger is among Pennsylvania’s largest employers with an estimated economic impact of $15 billion to the state’s economy. On March 31, 2024, Geisinger became the first member of Risant Health, a new nonprofit charitable organization created to expand and accelerate value-based care across the country. Learn more at geisinger.org or follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.
Elizabeth Zygmunt
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