Sutter Delta Medical Center is donating $12,500 to Bread of Life, a community food bank and charity program. The donation will help the program continue to feed local families and launch a food giveaway program for diabetics.

Bread of Life provides weekly groceries and warm meals to those members of East County’s communities looking for a little help. Pastor Larry Roper’s church, The Light Ministries, has run the program for more than 25 years.

“For the most part, the groceries we are able to give out are donated by local grocery stores from the items they aren’t

able to sell,” says Pastor Roper. “The money Sutter Delta is donating will help us add in some healthy variety for the Holidays and beyond.”

Bread of Life serves more than 100 hot meals every Saturday afternoon, and the number of patrons relying on them has increased steadily since the start of the troubled economy.

Pastor Roper is also hoping to expand the program to include special offerings for diabetics, who depend on a strict diet to stay healthy – one that can be difficult to manage on a tight budget.

Sutter Delta’s donation to Bread of Life is part of a collective donation to local food banks from Sutter Health’s system of doctors, not-for-profit hospitals and other health care service providers totaling $255,000.

“As health care providers and support staff, our employees see the stress East County families are under firsthand,” says Gary Rapaport, CEO of Sutter Delta. “We are making this donation in their honor, and we are very pleased that we can help Bread of Life support our community.”