ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – More than 200 of Atlanta’s most vulnerable people now have necessities like filling their bellies. It’s all thanks to the students of Forsyth County and Emory Hospital’s Kidney Disease and Screening Awareness Program.
Nonprofit organizations Food Sewa and Bridge4Good partnered with Emory physicians for a homeless health movement. Services were held Saturday morning at Lutheran Church of Our Savior.
Participants provided showers, hot meals, bagged food, dental kits, clothing, toys and more.
Shubha Mohan of Bridge4 Good and Food Sewa said more than 3,000 people were gathering on the streets in Atlanta.
“So for the past few years, the organization has been collecting food on the weekends and making deliveries in Mission Atlanta,” Mohan said. “This year, we’re going even further. We’re so grateful to the doctors at Emory University who have partnered with us to really ramp up health screenings and distribute dental kits.”
Bridge4 Good student organizer Srimayi Kukkadapu said the group packed about 200 meal bags. But I also wanted to work with medical professionals to help people who don’t see a doctor regularly.
“One of the big issues that Srimay and I saw was the lack of medical care due to the way the American health care system is run,” said Neha Nataraj, another Bridge 4 Good student organizer. “So we wanted to add that to the event, so we had dental supplies for them and had the Emory Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program come in to perform kidney screenings.
Organizers say this is the first time they have partnered with Emory.
“The kidneys are one of the most important organs in the body, but people are not as aware of the health needs that go into maintaining them,” says Mohan. “So this is an effort that they’re doing just to raise awareness and make people on the street aware of what it takes to actually maintain kidney health.”
The organizations said they want to show everyone that help is available when they are most in need.
“That was the whole point, right? To make their lives a little bit easier,” Nataraj said. “It’s mid-February, and it’s clearly a cold day. I hope this will make it a little less cold.”
Staff at Lutheran Church of Our Savior said that after the event, those in need can still receive food and assistance at the church from 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday through Friday.
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