Metro's Breton Health Clinic receives grant to maintain new emergency food pantry for patients

By Sharon Hanks

When employees at Metro Health Hospital's Breton Health Clinic saw needy patients coming in who were hungry and desperate, the kind-hearted 35 workers began bringing groceries from home to supply emergency food for them.

It was a small humanitarian effort that meant a lot to low-income patients and their families who could at least get by during anxious times. Most were single mothers, immigrants, newly unemployed or uninsured working people from the inner city. Last year, a grant from the Dyer Ives Foundation helped buy more groceries for patients visiting the clinic at 1925 Breton SE in Grand Rapids.

Thanks to a $5,000 grant from the Metro Health Hospital Foundation, the 500 some patients of the clinic can now depend on a steady supply of emergency groceries when they visit for care provided mostly by hospital physician interns and residents.

"We were thrilled because we can continue to serve the needs of our needy patient population," says Mary Craymer, the clinic's quality coordinator, adding that the food pantry ties in with the osteopathic holistic philosophy of treating the patients, mind, body and spirit.

"This year we're going to speak to a dietician and look at some ethnic food groups so we can purchase some foods that are more in line with what they (patients) had in their home countries," says Craymer, a registered nurse. "We have a lot of Burmese and Sudan patients. We just have to look and see what they normally eat and how we can fit that into our purchases at a reasonable cost.

"So many of these people are newly uninsured or under insured," she says. "They don't know anything about the system and where to get free or reduced cost items. With the job market (so tight), we've certainly seen the back end of what happens to individuals."

Craymer says groceries from the food pantry are only meant for emergency purposes for patients. During their visit at the clinic, they are encouraged to visit other sites where food supplies are handed out on a regular basis to those in need.

Sources: Mary Craymer, R.N. quality coordinator at Metro Health Hospital's Breton Health Clinic in Grand Rapids; Mary Ann Sabo of Sabo Public Relations in Grand Rapids.

Sharon Hanks is innovations and jobs news editor at Rapid Growth Media. Please send story ideas and comments for the column to Sharon at [email protected]. She also is owner of The Write Words in Grand Rapids.