Donating to: Community Enrichment Center
Legend Bank Snack Bar of Support Program
The Snack Bar of Support started with an email request from Laura Tanner, Patient Navigator at Wise Health System. She reached out to Delaina Henderson, our SVP Loan Services, asking if we would be interested in donating snacks to their new “Recharge Room”, a room they were creating to give their staff the opportunity to take a break from their demanding and exhausting days due to the pandemic. Delaina shared the request with Legend Bank executives and quickly the team developed ideas on how Legend Bank could help all of our communities to encourage healthcare workers in the middle of this COVID surge.
The Legend Bank executive team decided to stock the Recharge Room at Wise Health System and took it to the next level by giving each Legend Bank manager an allocation to spend on snacks and drinks to donate to their local hospital and urgent care centers, allowing them to set up a “Snack Bar of Support” to show heartfelt love and support for the healthcare workers in their community. This idea immediately took off and soon we were blessing hospitals and urgent care centers with Snack Bar refills to keep their healthcare workers recharged!
The mission and goals of this program were to share our deepest appreciation to the healthcare workers in our communities that have sacrificed so much for the well-being of their patients and communities. We know that the COVID surge last fall and again in the beginning of this year brought extreme pressure and stress on healthcare workers who were already worn down from the immense stress, mental and physical strain caused by the pandemic.
We launched the Snack Bar of Support on the 18th-month anniversary on the first positive COVID-19 case in Texas. At that time, over 56,000 Texans had lost their battle with COVID. We know the healthcare workers in our communities have been on the frontlines of the battle day and they need support and encouragement. The Snack Bar of Support was created to provide ongoing encouragement with refreshments to allow healthcare workers a break in their day and nourishment and many don’t have time for meal or lunch break.
“Our friends in healthcare have been pushed to the limit over the last 24 month dealing with the pandemic. It pains us as individuals to hear about the constant stress and sacrifice that doctors, nurses, hospital and urgent care staff, volunteers, and everyone else involved in caring for the sick have endured and are still enduring daily. Given the current circumstance, we at the bank feel we have an obligation to help. We hoped this small gesture provided a moment’s solace for our healthcare workers and show them the deep emotional sympathy and appreciation Legend Bank has for all these brave men and women who daily step up and put themselves on the front line of this battle against COVID-19,” said Jay Bearden, Legend Bank President and CEO.
The success of this project can be seen by the numerous appreciation messages we have received from the healthcare workers at local hospitals and urgent care centers as well as their outreach to us to share how much their staff has enjoyed the snacks with requests for refills. We stocked 13 hospital and urgent care breakrooms with 27 deliveries since the project launched in September of 2021.
