Christopher Moore, a security officer at Penn Medicine’s Chester County Hospital, has been a volunteer at West Chester Area Senior Center (WCASC) since he was a teenager, when his mother managed a bookstore that benefits WCASC. In recent years, he has volunteered at WCASC’s Corner Cabinet, which addresses food insecurity by distributing food to seniors, a service that was especially critical during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I knew a lot of senior citizens don’t have a lot of money, because of costs like Medicare and security and all,” Moore said. “A lot of them don’t have access to quality food, so I thought, ‘How can I help out? What can I do?’”
One day, Moore, who has worked at the Chester County Hospital for around 4 years, learned about the Penn Medicine CAREs grant through a work email. He didn’t hesitate to apply for a grant on behalf of WCASC.
“When I first applied for the CAREs grant, I talked to the head of WCASC, and she said they’d never had anyone reach out to the hospital before,” Moore said. “I thought it was cool to build that connection.”
The $500 CAREs grant he received for WCASC helped provide more food for seniors, including fixings to complement Thanksgiving and Christmas meals provided to 700 seniors in 2021.
“We met Chris as a very young man and have watched him grow up before our eyes. He is a talented, awesome, community-minded person who has helped in probably everything we do here,” said WCASC Executive Director Kathy Sullivan. “The CAREs grant, thanks to Chris’s efforts and Penn Medicine’s generosity, made a difference for so many seniors at the holidays.”