DOYLE MURPHY
Schnucks has teamed up with two nonprofit organizations to help women in underserved communities get mammograms.
While October is known for its spooky decorations, fun costumes and children eagerly looking forward to the last day of the month, it's also the month for breast cancer awareness.
Schnucks is taking advantage of the month by taking awareness a step further. The company is partnering with a local chapter of Pink Ribbon Girls, a women's health nonprofit, and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, a social service and civil rights organization. The partnership is hopeful they can help underserved communities, specifically those in north St. Louis city and county.
Through a voucher program, the groups are mailing a $50 Schnucks gift card to the first 1,500 mammogram patients. With the program, residents of the eligible zip codes will receive a voucher in the mail and will have to schedule a mammogram anywhere they choose. After the mammogram, participants bring the voucher and “the letter received after your appointment from your mammogram provider to a ‘Treasure Your Chest’ event at one of two local Schnucks stores,” the press release details.
Those two events take place on December 4, 2021 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the City Plaza Schnucks (3431 Union Boulevard) and February 6, 2022 from 12 to 2 p.m. at the Cross Keys Schnucks (13987 New Halls Ferry Road).
Schron Jackson, Schnucks Director of Community Engagement and Customer Care, says in a press release that Schnucks, alongside Pink Ribbon Girls and the Urban League, is “answering the challenge and striving to make the communities we call home better.”
“Working together we can change the landscape,” Jackson says in a statement, “and over time, provide a meaningful impact on those devastating statistics that show breast cancer disproportionately affects women in underserved areas of St. Louis – that includes where Schnucks was founded 82 years ago and continues serving today.”
A study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, titled "Improving breast cancer services for African-American women living in St. Louis," determined that although there has been progress in detection and treatment of breast cancer, “racial and ethnic disparities persist.”
The NCBI reports that “African-American women have a 41 percent greater chance of dying from breast cancer than white women, although white women have a higher incidence of the disease.” Pink Ribbon Girls reports on its website that 94 percent of health screenings were delayed in the months of January through April of 2020, so they are hoping to change that with these events.
“We are thrilled to partner with Schnucks and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis to help encourage women to make their health a priority,” Cory Smallwood, Regional Director of Pink Ribbon Girls says in a press release. “We hope that the Treasure Your Chest campaign will inspire women to schedule a mammogram because we know mammograms can save lives.”
Michael McMillan, Urban League President and CEO, echoes Smallwood in the press release, saying the nonprofit was honored to partner with the two organizations. He added that many of the clients at Urban League are women and heads of household, so if they suffer a health emergency, everyone suffers. McMillian called the program “life-changing.”
Eligible zip codes can be found on www.pinkribbongirls.org/treasure-your-chest-2021, as well as registration for the program.
This is not the only philanthropic effort from Schnucks this month. The company has also activated its “Round up at the Register” program, which solicits donations for the United Way. The program runs until October 19 with all donations going to the organization.
Follow Jenna on Twitter at @writesjenna. Email the author at [email protected]
