A nurse is being hailed as a hero for initiating a “Take-What-You-Need” pantry to help healthcare workers in the community.
Healthcare workers
The idea for the pantry started back when the grocery store aisles were emptied of basic necessities at the beginning of the pandemic. Healthcare workers were having a hard time buying what they needed after their long hours of shifts taking care of the sick in ICUs. Nurse Stacey Mason from Virginia saw the big problem her fellow healthcare workers were facing and decided to step in to help.
That was when she initiated the “Take-What-You-Need” pantry in their local hospital. It all started in her Intensive Care Unit and her first pantry was a defibrillator cabinet. The staff could share what they could and take what they needed from the pantry.
With the success of her pantry, she then decided to open the pantry to the whole of Mary Washington Healthcare. Her initiative solved the problem most of the healthcare workers were facing. Today, she is now being hailed as a hero of Fauquier County.
“Give what you can: take what you need.”
The entire Mary Washington Hospital Team is now taking part in serving their fellow healthcare workers in the community. The slogan for their program is “Give what you can: take what you need.”
“There are plenty of people who come through and take advantage of the pantry who are now in single-income families because of the virus,” Nurse Stacey said. “There are also others who have lost a loved one and are facing different financial realities. And staffers who aren’t working the number of hours they once did.”
2020: Year of the Nurse
Nurse Stacey is one of the reasons why this year is the Year of the Nurse.
“We know that many of our associates’ families are feeling the economic impacts of coronavirus,” Mary Washington Healthcare posted on Facebook, “and it’s nurses like Stacy Mason who demonstrate why 2020 is the Year of the Nurse.”
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