LifeSouth Community Blood Centers are urging people to donate due to critically low supplies in Florida. | LifeSouth
Published on January 23, 2026 at 3:29 pm
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Supplies of donated blood are critically low in Florida, including Jacksonville, according to LifeSouth Community Blood Centers.
The nonprofit community blood bank serves more than 150 hospitals in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. It is asking people to donate to save lives.
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Ten blood centers in a nine-state South Region have one day or less of blood to handle emergencies, and 16 have a one- to two-day supply, according to AmericasBlood.org, a national organization of blood centers.
Only four centers have at least a three-day supply.
Centers with a blood supply of three or more days have enough blood to meet normal operating demands. Those with a two-day or lower supply are running low and need blood donations.
Locally, the need is “pretty bad,” said James Skahn, district recruitment manager for LifeSouth’s Community Blood Center.
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“It is not at the critical level, but right now in Florida, we are at a one- or two-day supply,” Skahn told Jacksonville Today. “That is true of Jacksonville as well for hospitals. The expectations is that we have at least a three-day supply for our hospitals. … The blood is used for trauma incidents, emergencies and also it can be used in products to help people recovering from cancer, sickle cell.”
National Blood Donor Month
January is National Blood Donor Month. It was first observed in 1970 after a proclamation by President Richard Nixon. The observance brings attention to the role that blood donors play in public health at a time when many blood centers around the nation experience a supply shortage.
LifeSouth supplies blood to 70% of Northeast Florida hospitals including Baptist Medical Center, HCA Florida, UF Health Jacksonville and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. All of the local blood donations are stored in blood banks that serve area hospitals, LifeSouth said.
Blood banks seem to face low donation levels at certain times of the year, such as just after Christmas and New Year’s. There could be a number of reasons, Skahn said.
“Travel is a big one — we also see this around the summertime,” he said. “Sickness in the winter time — people are not always feeling up to it. But in Jacksonville, there has been more of a drop in attendance for our mobile blood drives than usual, and I don’t really have a good answer for that. I am hoping to get people ou. I hope people decide to be altruistic about it — it’s their blood.”
To encourage donations, LifeSouth is offering some goodies to donors. They include a commemorative sweatshirt, while platelet and double red cell donors receive a $40 e-gift card while supplies last.
LifeSouth also is offering complimentary A1C testing to all blood donors, helping them learn if they may have pre-diabetes or diabetes. All blood donors also receive a mini-physical including cholesterol screen, blood pressure, pulse, hemoglobin level and temperature.
LifeSouth also is looking for first-time donors and for groups to host a blood drive.
For additional information about donating, or to find a blood drive, call LifeSouth toll-free at (888) 795-2707, go to lifesouth.org, or download the LifeSouth app.
