Santa Rosa's Sutter hospital, affiliates donate $12,500 for food programs

Citing the connection between health and access to food, Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital and its affiliated physicians group are donating $12,500 to two local food charities.

Marking the start of the holiday season, the hospital and Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation, which are part of the Sutter Health network, each are giving $6,250 to the Ceres Project and the Redwood Empire Food Bank.

Mike Purvis, the hospital’s chief administrative officer, said the donations are an acknowledgment that food is “one of those basic essentials that contributes tremendously to health.”

The local donation is part of $255,000 Sutter Health is donating to food banks in Northern California and Hawaii, which collectively serve more than 1 million meals to struggling residents during the winter.

The Ceres Community Project is a local organization that promotes locally grown, organic food and celebrates its healing aspects.

Ceres projects include a “food as medicine” initiative, a teen empowerment project that trains and educates young chefs and a community education project that teaches local residents about the importance of eating healthy, locally grown organic food.

The Redwood Food Bank reaches more than 82,000 residents in Sonoma County every month, providing food through hunger relief initiatives aimed at meeting the needs of low-income children, seniors and working families.

The local food bank is the primary source of food supplies for 276 human service programs assisting the needy, disabled and homeless in Sonoma County.

Sutter Health said its donations to community food banks in the past six years have exceeded $1.4 million.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @renofish.