The TWU College of Nursing was recognized during the North Texas Food Bank’s Golden Fork Awards celebration Oct. 28. Dionne Magner (Nursing adjunct, Dallas) accepted the food bank’s Tom Black Volunteer of the Year award, one of the organization’s highest honors.

Magner, course manager for the spring 2021 community health course, said more than 100 Dallas nursing students rotate through the NTFB each semester and assist with food sorting and distribution at the organization’s Plano center. Aleatha Rossler is the current course manager.

A press release from the food bank lauds both the students and the nursing program, stating:

“TWU graduates more new health care professionals than any other university in Texas, and at no point has this ever been more important than now. The TWU Nursing Program specifically is considered one of the best nursing programs in the nation and a leading provider of high-quality graduates. We witnessed this firsthand at the Food Bank over the last year after Dionne Magner, Assistant Clinical Professor at TWU’s Doswell College of Nursing, reached out to us about available service-learning opportunities. She went on to sign up five or six of her students to volunteer in the NTFB warehouse here at the Perot Family Campus three days per week between September and November 2020. Their caring and empathetic nature really came through during their time at the Food Bank.”

The award, which Magner will deliver to the Dallas campus soon, is a small version of artist Brad Oldham’s work at the entrance of the NTFB in Plano. The sculpture is called “Lulu May’s Mark” in honor of Lulu May Perot.

TWU College of Nursing adjunct faculty member Dionne Magner,
left, accepts the North Texas Food Bank's Tom Black Volunteer
of the Year award during the organization's Golden Fork Awards
ceremony on Oct. 28. Erica Yeager, chief external affairs officer
at the food bank, is pictured at right. Yeager nominated the Dallas
campus students for the award. (Courtesy photo)