JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Representatives of Food City and the Ballad Health Foundation gathered on Friday to celebrate thousands of dollars in donations to Niswonger Children’s Hospital.
Two checks from the Food City Charitable Foundation totaled $23,500 with $20,000 earmarked for Niswonger Children’s Hospital. The remaining $3,500 was presented for Ballad Health’s breast cancer screening program.
“These kids are our kids,” Rick Bishop, executive vice president of operations for Food City, said. “These kids are our customers’ kids that we want to help every day, and we always want to give back to our community.”
Ballad Health Foundation president Jack Simpson said partnerships like Food City’s help keep the children’s hospital afloat in the region.
“It is really a very rare thing for a community our size to be able to support a children’s hospital,” Simpson said. “Usually, it would take a population of two or even three times of what we have here in the Appalachian Highlands region to be able to provide those kinds of services for our children.
“And we cannot do that without community supporters like Food City.”
