"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."
- Virginia Woolf
PT's Community Engaged Learning program is fortunate to partner with Westminster Neighborhood Services and American Red Cross, two vital organizations helping to address two lifesaving basic needs for our neighbors in Indy - food and blood.
Westminster Neighborhood Services is a multi-service agency working to help Near Eastside residents for more than 30 years. Its adult facility offers a food pantry, soup kitchen and adult education classes and workshops (including GED prep, parenting, cooking and nutrition, job readiness, reading, and financial literacy). One important issue WNS is working to fight is food insecurity - "a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life" (USDA). Fifteen percent of residents in central Indiana's 11 counties live with food insecurity. In 2016, Westminster's food pantry hosted more than 15,000 visits from nearly 2000 shoppers and its soup kitchen served more than 11,000 meals. Three hundred families received food baskets with food staples, a holiday meal and clothing essentials like socks, hats and gloves. WNS also has an education center that provides after school enrichment and summer school for K-8th grade students.
Beyond lifesaving training, house fire assistance, and disaster relief, American Red Cross is one of the largest suppliers of blood in the U.S. and Indiana. Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. Nationally, the Red Cross collects about 14,000 donations daily to support patients in approximately 2,600 hospitals. In our state, Red Cross needs 550 blood donors each day to support patients at 80 hospitals, including the IU Health system and St. Vincent hospitals. Donated blood is separated into red blood cells, platelets, and plasma, and Red Cross supplies these products for trauma, general surgery, oncology, pediatric, neonatal, anemia, sickle cell, and hemophilia patients. Learn about the blood donation process here.
How can you and our Park Tudor community help meet food and blood needs in Indy this fall?
- Be a blood donor on October 30th in the US Wood Room from 8:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Our goal is to provide 60+ student, faculty, staff and parent donors for our bi-annual American Red Cross blood drive. To be scheduled for your blood donation, email me. Students can donate if 17 or older (or 16 with parental permission).
- Give food during our annual food drive in late November as we help Westminster fill food baskets for 300 families this holiday season. Each division will take on the goal of gathering 300+ of each food item requested by WNS - watch for emails about our school-wide drive.
Thank you for joining PT by generously supporting life-giving needs in our Indianapolis community!