Volunteer Spotlight: Edenton Street United Methodist Church Missional Community

A fantastic group of young families from an Edenton Street UMC Missional Community adopted Alliance Medical Ministry in 2017. Here's a highlight of their service:

• Garden Launch labor prepping our garden for spring planting
• Providing breakfast for staff
• Manning the Wine Wall at the Farm to Table Dinner
• Building boxes for Share the Pie
• Donating glucometers and strips for diabetic patients

They adopted an Alliance family for Christmas, gifting everything from scrubs, toys, clothes, and even a PS4!

From Missional Community leader Becca Edwards: "We have been so blessed by this experience! God is so good. We can't wait for the family to receive these items given with such love."

Welcome New Funder: The Leon Levine Foundation

The Leon Levine Foundation joined Alliance Medical Ministry as a foundation partner this month, making a $30,000 gift to the clinic, supporting healthcare services for the uninsured.
 

The Levine Foundation, started by Leon Levine from Charlotte, North Carolina, strives to improve the human condition by creating permanent, measurable, life-changing impact. 

“The Leon Levine Foundation is very pleased to partner with Alliance Medical Ministry, an organization so closely aligned with the vision of our founder, in supporting access to quality healthcare for low-income working, uninsured adults,” says Tom Lawrence, Executive Director.

Thank you to the Levine Foundation for investing in our mission and programming!

NCAFCC Accreditation News

Alliance Medical Ministry was recognized this month for receiving accreditation through the North Carolina Association of Free and Charitable Clinics.

The NCAFCC’s accreditation program offers organizations the opportunity to strengthen their programs and services by demonstrating their compliance to standards shared by similar organizations. Obtaining NCAFCC Accreditation status illustrates the organization's values and commitment to performance.  

Randy Jordan, CEO of NCAFCC said, “We are extremely proud of the commitment to delivering quality health care to the uninsured of Wake County represented by Alliance Medical Ministry achieving the goal of NCAFCC accreditation.  Congratulations to Executive Director Megg Rader and her talented team!”       

Governor Cooper at Alliance for ACA Enrollment

Governor Roy Cooper and NC Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen spoke at an Affordable Care Act open enrollment event held at Alliance Medical Ministry on December 13th, encouraging uninsured North Carolina residents to enroll for health coverage. The enrollment deadline was December 15th. 

"I want a North Carolina where people are better educated, where they are healthy, where they have more money in their pockets, where they have the opportunity to live more abundant and purposeful lives. That is what I want.” - Governor Roy Cooper

Alliance Executive Director Megg Rader recognized and thanked the navigators, assisters, and outreach workers who work diligently to help individuals across North Carolina get covered with health insurance.  

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!