Orchid Health promotes well-being with nutritious food

Good food is key to good health, so Orchid Health’s Wade Creek Clinic in Estacada is working to get healthy, fresh food to hungry Estacada residents.

Once a month, on every third Friday, folks with barriers to getting nutritious food can go to the Wade Creek Clinic and get bags of wholesome, fresh food, the kind not always available at food banks.

The new monthly food giveaways help “ensure free food is available to everyone experiencing food insecurity,” said Missy Albrich, clinic manager at the Orchid health clinic in Estacada.

At the July distribution, people were offered fresh produce, bread from AntFarm, meat from local Oregon farms and cheese from Sandy’s TMK Creamery. There was also a recipe guide tucked into the bags of healthy food.

The program emphasizes local producers.

“What we’ve been doing is connecting with local organizations (to provide the food),” said Johnny Cantrell, marketing manager for Orchid Health. “We’re trying to keep it as local as possible.”

The bursting bags of food were given to 140 families in Estacada at the latest distribution on July 19, and 178 families at the June distribution.

The program is made possible by a grant from Trillium Family Services in Portland and Wade Creek Clinic’s healthy food program will run through December.

The program gets in-kind donations of food from AntFarm, TMK, Slice of Heaven Farm in Sandy and other organizations.

The program also depends on hard work put in by volunteers. Estacada and Sandy high school Future Farmers of America students give their time to the program as does AntFarm participants and others.

Orchid is a rural healthcare provider and operates five clinics across Oregon with another scheduled to open in October. The Estacada clinic is the only one with the food program.

The Orchid Health Wade Creek Clinic is at 535 N.E. Sixth Ave, in the Estacada High School parking lot.

“Food scarcity is an issue many Americans are facing and this is a way of engaging with our community to bring better health,” Cantrell said.