KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Share your story idea with Claire.
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HCA Midwest Health employees at Lee's Summit and Belton Regional Medical Centers volunteered Tuesday to make 2,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as part of an ongoing effort to combat food insecurity in the Kansas City area.
The volunteers partnered with Just a Sandwich, a Kansas City-based nonprofit that has made close to 75,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches since 2017. The organization distributes the sandwiches to other nonprofits, shelters and homeless camps.
"We give them back to lots of organizations that are feeding hungry people in the city," Kristina Richey, CEO and cofounder of Just a Sandwich, said.
The volunteer event is part of HCA Midwest Health's We Show Up initiative, which is dedicated to making a community impact through volunteerism. Over the past two years, the group has worked toward a collective goal of making 20,000 sandwiches.
Paige Baker, chief nursing officer at Lee's Summit Medical Center, said Tuesday's effort connects directly to patient and community health.
"So, impacting that as soon as we can to make sure people aren't worried about where their next meal is, they're getting their calories, their protein from some peanut butter can really make a big impact in people's health, emotionally and physically. So any way we can participate in helping people feel better, we want to be there for that," Baker said.
Richey said food insecurity affects far more people than many realize.
"It's really expensive for people to eat right now. Everybody is struggling. Everybody's being squeezed. And I think we don't realize that this isn't just people on the side of the road holding up a sign that are hungry. These are like our neighbors, like there's so many people that are struggling to eat right now, and this just does a little bit to close that gap," Richey said.
Just a Sandwich's mission relies on volunteer efforts like the one HCA Midwest Health hosted Tuesday. More information is available at justasandwich.org.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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