• By Todd Luck
• Posted Thursday, August 6, 2020

Public Health holds successful mask and food giveaway

The Forsyth County Department of Public Health held a food and mask giveaway on Saturday, August 1, at the Enterprise Center.

It was the first such event in the YO ME CUIDO POR QUE AMO A MI FAMILIA Y MIS AMIGOS (I Take Care of Myself Because I Love My Family and Friends) campaign aimed at he Hispanic community.

The event served 250 families, giving away 500 bags with food, more than 1,000 face masks, hand sanitizer, books, and educational materials about COVID-19 and proper face mask use. There was also information given out about Novant Health, Wake Forest Baptist Health / Maya Angelou, Safe Kids, Forsyth Technical Community College.

Many organizations came together to make this event happen including Radio Onda de Amor, Sin Fronteras Church, Wake Forest / Maya Angelou, Safe Kids, Novant Health, Hispanic League, City of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County Public Health, and Cancer Services. Food was donated by K&W Cafeteria and Cuervito Morado. Masks and hand sanitizer were donated by Novant Health, Hispanic League, Forsyth Tech, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Project Mask, TROSA and Cancer Services. Well Read, Well Fed Forsyth donated 100 children’s books. Radio Onda De Amor and The City of Winston-Salem helped promote the event.

Planning is already in the works for future mask giveaway events.

The giveaways are just part of the larger COVID-19 outreach effort the Forsyth Public Health Department is doing, which you can learn more about here. Public Health is also currently engaged in a $200,000 COVID-19 educational advertising campaign, half of which is aimed at the Hispanic community.