For the last 13 years, the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Professional Nurse Council at the Detroit Medical Center and Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan have partnered to ensure children have a daily meal over summer break.
Since its beginnings in 2010, the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Cereal Drive has collected more than 12 million servings of cereal for kids in southeastern Michigan.
This year’s Cereal Drive kicked off June 2 and ran through June 9. In addition to the kick-off event and the wrap-up celebration at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Kroger hosted a collection event at the Royal Oak Kroger with Jay Towers and 100.3 WNIC broadcasting live. Community members stopped by to fill a Royal Oak District school bus full of food – 7,508 pounds of cereal to be exact!
Between the stiff competition among the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Cereal Drive committee teams – the Critical Care-ios, CHM Queen Bees, and Caped Cereal Crusaders – and incredible support from the community, this year’s Cereal Drive collected 44,248 lbs, or 617,230 servings, of cereal.
Of course, you can’t have cereal without milk! Gleaners continues to work closely with our partner, Milk Means More /United Dairy Industry of Michigan, to help meet the need in the community for fresh milk. Throughout the month of June (National Dairy Month!), supporters donated over $26,000 through the Cereal Drive virtual donation page toward the purchase of milk. A match from Michigan’s dairy farmers and Blue Cross Blue Shield MI brought us to a grand total of 306,667 servings of milk!