As Pandemic Destroys Traditional Blood Drive Model, 70% Of Incoming Blood Supply Is Threatened

KANSAS CITY — Community Blood Center (CBC) is calling on the community to make appointments to visit donor centers as COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the process of donating blood. Before COVID-19, mobile blood drives hosted by high schools, colleges, businesses and other organizations made up about 70% of the region’s incoming blood supply, but the number of mobile drives has dropped by two-thirds this year as these groups can no longer host them.

The upcoming school year presents new and unprecedented challenges. Blood donations are typically lower during the summer and the return to school usually helps make up the difference and stabilize the blood supply. In the past, school and college drives have collected 20,000 blood donations during each school year.

“We’ve always relied on the fall to provide a boost in blood donations from high school and college blood drives that are large and well-attended, but we know that’s not happening this time,” said Kim Peck, Senior Executive Director of Community Blood Center. “The pandemic is forcing us to rethink the entire landscape, which means encouraging donors to take the extra step of making an appointment and traveling to a donor center. The loss of young donors is a particular challenge because our future blood supply is dependent on these first-time donors becoming lifetime donors.”

CBC began hosting a limited number of drives again this summer, however they are far from the number of drives per month needed to support area hospitals. CBC is encouraging eligible donors of all ages to adapt to this new normal by making appointments to visit one of its 7 donor centers.

Blood from volunteer donors is needed every two seconds to help meet the daily transfusion needs of cancer and surgery patients, accident and burn victims, newborns and mothers delivering babies, AIDS and sickle cell anemia patients, and many more.

• To make an appointment to donate blood, click here.
• CBC also needs more partners to step up and help host drives in large venues. If you have a space available and would like to host a blood drive, please contact Kay Reeves at 816.213.2728 or kreeves@cbckc.org.
• For information on the extra precautions being taken to help prevent the person-to-person spread of COVID-19, click here. 

About Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City (CBC)

Community Blood Center, now part of the NYBC family, serves hospitals in the Kansas City metropolitan area, as well as eastern Kansas and western Missouri. CBC provides nearly 200,000 blood products per year to approximately 65 area hospitals – and calls upon about 580 donors each day to meet the need for a life-saving gift of blood. The blood center makes timely deliveries of safe, high-quality products to meet transfusion needs, for routine care and emergencies. For more information, visit http://www.savealifenow.org/.