The Project C.U.R.E. Kansas City Warehouse is celebrating its 100th shipment of donated life-saving medical supplies and equipment to needy people around the world. On March 14, staff and volunteers marked the event at the 50,000-square-foot Hunt Midwest Subtropolis warehouse by packing a semi-truck trailer of essential medical donations including exam tables, gurneys, consumable items, surgical supplies and biomedical equipment.
“We are incredibly excited with this milestone,” says Douglas Jackson, President and CEO at Project C.U.R.E. “Building on the legacy of Sister Andrea and the team at the Franciscan Mission Warehouse, we are changing the world for mothers and babies in Suriname. On the heels of International Women’s Day, it doesn’t get better.”
The 100th container shipment is going to support clinics in Suriname, South America. The items will be used to provide primary and preventative care services to the community where maternal mortality is more than twice that in the United States and a per capita income of $4,500 a year.
Project C.U.R.E.’s history in Kansas City grew from a partnership with the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist, a Catholic order of religious sisters in Independence, Missouri. From 1995-2019, Sister Andrea Kantner and the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist operated the Franciscan Mission Warehouse. The warehouse was a 10,000-square-foot facility that shipped medical supplies and equipment to developing countries around the world. During its 25 years of operation, 274 shipments were sent to 33 countries giving clinics and hospitals what they needed to care for their patients.
In 2019, the Sisters sought a partner organization and found a match with Project C.U.R.E. In 2020, the affiliation of the two organizations was finalized and the move to a new 54,000-square-foot warehouse in North Kansas City, Missouri, was complete. To honor the heritage of The Sisters of St Francis, the Kansas City warehouse was officially named Project C.U.R.E. Franciscan Mission Warehouse.
Since opening in 2020, this warehouse has facilitated shipments to healthcare facilities in 32 countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Ukraine, Rwanda, Senegal, Suriname, Türkiye, Togo, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
The Project C.U.R.E. Community in Kansas City is one of seven Project C.U.R.E. locations nationwide. Other 50,000-square-foot warehouses are located in Denver, Phoenix, Nashville, Houston, Chicago and Philadelphia.
