Volunteer Spotlight: Merz North America

We are finally saying goodbye to summer veggies we look forward to December harvests and January plantings! Spinach and Cabbage plantings are looking great as we tuck the bees in for the Winter! Our volunteers from Merz Raleigh did a fabulous job helping and working in our garden in preparation for winter! 

These awesome volunteers got a lot accomplished:

• Spread five yards of mulch in garden pathways
• Painted six benches and one teepee
• Raked leaves, picked up fallen limbs
• Planted new plants/spruced up prayer garden
• Pruned roses and other bushes around campus

Our volunteers also assembled 75 travel kits! Each kit containing deodorant, toothpaste, a toothbrush, soap, shampoo, kleenex, chapstick, and a few more everyday necessities. 

Now that summer is officially over and the first frost has finally hit, we bid farewell to our okra, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. This was not before we had a blast harvesting a bonus 120 pounds of green tomatoes to share with our community. They are great green and fresh and will even ripen up on their own in a couple weeks. This harvest brings us to 2,043 pounds for the year!

2017 Community Garden Year-In-Review

Eating fresh, healthy vegetables and fruits are critical to healthy lifestyles, and help us to lose weight, lower blood pressure, and decrease hemoglobin A1c sugar levels. 

Unfortunately, many in our community lack access to these healthy foods due to physical or financial barriers.

Thanks to you, Alliance Medical Ministry was able to provide fresh produce to our patients and families --

2,043 pounds of it!

We can't do it without your support, so THANK YOU! 

300+ Volunteers
16 Garden Workdays
721 Volunteer Hours
20 Volunteer Groups

Will you help us end the year with a "bang"? 

I have a personal goal of raising $500 from garden volunteers to support our winter garden.  I hope I can count on you!

- Jesse Crouch

November 2017 Volunteer Highlight

Imani Allen

N.C. State Senior, Imani Allen, joined Alliance Medical Ministry this Fall, helping facilitate and teach the Cooking Matters class @ Alliance.  Cooking Matters @ Alliance is offered in partnership with Inter-Faith Food Shuttle.

Imani led the six-week cooking and nutrition course that helps Alliance patients plan, shop, and cook healthy, nutritious, affordable, and delicious meals.

“I have always been very interested and involved in community outreach programs so when I was introduced with the opportunity to incorporate my studies into the community, I was very eager to participate”

Imani is pursing her bachelor's degree in Nutrition Science with a minor in Africana Studies. She plans to continue on to dental school and hopes to become an pediatric dentist. After dental school, Imani would love to open her own unique practice that, not only works with youth, but specializes in dental work on children with disorders such as Autism and Down's Syndrome. 

Imani was introduced to Alliance through the North Carolina State University Undergraduate Nutrition Coordinator and was very interested in Alliance's work. She has always been interested in community outreach and was excited at the chance to apply her studies to our Cooking Matters program. During her time here, Imani worked with Jesse Crouch, Garden & Wellness Coordinator, to facilitate this interactive and educational nutrition course. Each week was focused on different health aspects and creating healthy meals for participants to try. 

“I loved the participants’ willingness to engage and ask questions. They often asked questions that prompted me to do my own research and explore deeper into my nutrition education. I enjoyed that participants helped me to expand on my studies and challenged me to learn more outside of the classroom.”

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Scott Rostick

Eagle Scout candidate Scott Rostick of Troop 395 completed a great project in which he built two new picnic tables for the Alliance Community Garden.  The tables were made just in time for the community building initiatives planned with the Raleigh Food Corridor Nutrition Hub project in 2018.  Thank you, Scott, for all your hard work!

Patient Spotlight: Dorothy Patterson

Meet Dorothy. 

Grandmother, two-time cancer survivor, million step walker.

Dorothy Patterson is a force to be reckoned with. A ten-year patient of Alliance and Dr. Sheryl Joyner, she has overcome cancer on two different occasions, works full-time, and often fits 46,000 steps into her day.

"You have to face each day with a smile," she says.  "It's important for me, especially with my situation and history with cancer, to keep my body healthy."  

How does Dorothy stay healthy?

"I garden." 

Dorothy participated in the spring Seed to Supper program at Alliance, growing her own vegetables in the Alliance Community Garden this summer. "I love gardening.  It's in my blood, I have a green thumb.  I love to see how beautiful my garden looks – it’s a blessing for people who can’t afford to get veggies that you can help feed them too."

"I walk." 

Dorothy accepted the Million Step Challenge this spring, walking sometimes 46,000 steps daily.  She ended the Challenge with 2,058,611 steps!

"I cook."

Dorothy was excited to join this Fall's Cooking Matters @ Alliance course, where she joins other patients and their families to learn how to meal plan, grocery shop, and cook healthy and delicious meals on a budget.

"Being able to share and do all these things at the doctor’s office is incredible and makes it so easy."

Dorothy, you are an inspiration for us all!

Campbell Community Law Clinic partners with Alliance Medical Ministry

Campbell Community Law Clinic will begin providing legal services to patients of Alliance Medical Ministry.  Alliance joins community partners StepUp Ministry, the Raleigh Rescue Mission and Urban Ministry as partner agencies of the Community Law Clinic. In the last 12 months, the clinic has assisted dozens of clients referred by these non-profit partners and more than 100 individuals in all.

“We are thrilled to partner with Alliance, a wonderful non-profit serving working families,” said clinic director Ashley Campbell. “We especially welcome the opportunity to work with Megg Rader, Alliance’s executive director, and a fellow graduate of Campbell Law School.”

The Campbell Community Law Clinic partners with non-profit agencies in the community to provide solutions to legal problems encountered by clients of those agencies. The clinic provides representation, advocacy, education and reconciliation for its clients while delivering valuable and practical knowledge to law school students.

AMM receives $30,000 from Advanced Home Care Charity Golf Classic

Alliance Medical Ministry is tremendously grateful to have been selected as one of the charity recipients for Advanced Home Care's 24th Annual Charity Golf Classic, receiving a $30,000 gift for our clinic!  The golf tournament was held on September 13, 2017, at Champions Course at Bryan Park in Greensboro, NC.

Advanced Home Care partnered with three of its owner health systems – Cone Health, Novant Health, and WakeMed – to selected the charities based on shared service areas.  

“Being a partner in the communities we serve is core to Advanced Home Care’s mission. Together we can make a larger impact in the lives of many," shared Joel Mills, Advanced Home Care’s CEO. "I am proud of our Charity Golf Classic for supporting important charities for the 24th year.”  

Leigh Spencer, Advanced Home Care’s Senior Director of Support Services, adds, “It is an inspiration to see people across health care, from manufacturers to providers, come together each year. Our Charity Golf Classic is a success due to their caring spirits and we are grateful to the support provided.”

October 2017 Garden Update

Even as the Alliance Community Garden winds down the growing season, a flurry of planting, harvesting, and seeding has been taking place thanks to key volunteer support!    

• Our Second Saturday regular garden workday welcomed volunteers from Edenton Street United Methodist Church Missional Community, the Boy Scouts, and MedThink.  Volunteers pulled weeds, harvested butter beans, and planted spinach seeds. One helpful volunteer used his truck to pick up and spread leaf mulch. 
• The men’s group from Crosspointe Church in Cary pulled weeds and mulched around the blueberry bushes. 
• Many thanks to Christ Episcopal Church youth group for weeding, mulching, harvesting lima beans, seeding clover, and planting spinach in the handicapped-accessible garden box. 

Volunteers and patients always ask how we ward away the pests and the deer. Through a variety of organic deterrents we’ve been able to keep our Community Garden healthy for the past eight years.

This Fall has brought along a new challenge, however --  two woodchucks! These fuzzy critters have a serious sweet tooth for the tender young leaves of our Fall plants. While we haven’t caught them yet, we’re hopeful and have made some adaptive adjustments to ensure the planting success of some produce as we close out the growing season.

We’ve covered a few rows of plants with a shade cloth to act as a physical barrier for the groundhog and have planted spinach out of reach in our handicapped-accessible planter boxes.

Despite the groundhog challenge, we’re grateful for our well rooted summer crops that will continue to bear beautiful, nutritious fruit until the first frost.  

Stay tuned for the cabbage, collards, and spinach coming soon!

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Come dig in our garden!

Join us for our FINAL regular Garden Work Day! 

Learn a thing or two about our garden and bees and help provide fresh produce for our patients.

RSVP or just drop in! garden@alliancemedicalministry.org

November 11, 9 am to 12 pm