Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, College of Public Health Alumni continue to use skills learned at the College of Public Health to serve their communities
Nicole Cook, a 2015 Masters of Public Health graduate, serves as Senior Partnership Manager at Greater Cleveland Food Bank, overseeing the distribution of food resources to organizations that serve seniors in need of food assistance.
“COVID-19 has impacted every single one of our lives, but possibly none more so than our senior community. I oversee the administration of food resources and partnership services to organizations that serve seniors in need of food assistance. Now more than ever, there are thousands of food-insecure seniors in need of critical food resources with Cuyahoga County having the largest number of seniors living in poverty in Ohio at 30%,” Cook said.
Greater Cleveland Food Bank has experienced a strong surge in demand since the pandemic began. The Food Bank said they delivered 9 million more pounds of food in 2020 versus 2019.
“We know that this population has unique needs and risk factors that require special attention We needed to act fast, get creative, and work with our community to devise new ways to carefully get food to our senior neighbors. Over the last year, we have been able to establish several drive-thru-style food distributions. Additionally, many of our partners have stepped up to deliver food boxes and frozen meals to homebound seniors. Our team at the Food Bank hosts monthly senior box distributions and is facilitating some home deliveries as well. We are currently serving a growing population of 85,000 seniors through our programming and anticipate serving 100,000 seniors in our six-county service area in FY2021,” Cook said.
Nearly half a million people have been served since the start of the pandemic, Cook said.
The College of Public Health thanks alumna Nicole Cook for her service to her community!