National Heritage Academies Service Center Donates 130 Meals to Hospital Staff

The foundation of what makes National Heritage Academies (NHA) who they are is exceptional character. While NHA schools are passionate about developing the whole student, heart and character included, the same values have equal importance at the Service Center, NHA’s corporate headquarters.

It is a fundamental belief and practice at NHA that kindness and strong hearts and minds can impact the world in significant ways. Virtues like respect, compassion, and perseverance are essential, and every month NHA schools and the Service Center feature a different Moral Focus virtue.

Service Center employees lent a helping hand and chipped in to purchase boxed lunches from the Grand Traverse Pie Co for the hard-working teams at Metro Hospital.

Close family friends of Brian Gard, director of safety and health at NHA, own the Grand Traverse Pie Co and, like all restaurants, they are facing significant challenges. Gard’s wife found an opportunity to help benefit the Emergency Department team at Metro Hospital by way of a meal train, meanwhile supporting a local business.

“Being quarantined is a challenging time for all us,” said Gard. “Helping in any small way is important and being able to leverage resources to help our community is something we are proud to do.”

Gard proposed a “Friends of NHA donation” to NHA Service Center employees to join forces and support the meal train. In total, 130 boxed lunches from the Grand Traverse Pie Co were donated for the hard-working individuals serving on the front lines at Metro Hospital. Eighty meals covered both the day and overnight shift for the emergency department, 40 meals covered the dayshift Intensive Care Unit (ICU) team, and 10 meals covered the day and overnight security team shift.

NHA was founded on a set of principles – core values that reflect the high personal and educational standards they hold themselves to. These principles are to take ownership for the success of their students, do the right thing always, behave with care, make NHA schools the best choice for parents and students, and act with discipline to sustain academic success and financial viability. ​​​​​​​

“Through supporting a local business and feeding front line workers, we are practicing our key principal of behaving with care,” shared Gard. “We are committed to respecting and supporting our families and each other.”