Republished with permission from Ohio Health
OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital’s Family Medicine Residency program is partnering with the Dublin Food Pantry and Dublin City Schools to expand access to high-quality healthcare and nutritious food for families in need. This collaborative initiative includes a school-based health clinic, community pop-up pantries, and support through the OhioHealth Sports Medicine department.
The OhioHealth and Dublin City Schools’ School-Based Health Clinic:
Dublin City Schools serves a diverse student population, representing a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. The school-based health clinic is designed to help ease the burden on families facing financial challenges and to provide access to essential healthcare in a more convenient way.
“Our goal is to create longitudinal relationships that can help connect families to existing resources while also providing them a location to get their healthcare needs met,” Ben Bring, DO, OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital family practice physician said.
Dr. Bring and Rebecca Grant, MD, OhioHealth associate program director and OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital family practice physician, started the clinic in 2021. Originally, the clinic focused primarily on offering free immunizations, but its services have since expanded to meet the broader needs of the community. They have grown the program to include sports physicals, basic well-child visits, immunizations and more.
The clinic is currently offered within Dublin Scioto High School, Dublin Davis Middle School, Dublin Wright Elementary School, and Dublin Hopewell Elementary, but eventually the OhioHealth team hopes to expand these services to other schools in the area.
“I would love to see a school-based health clinic in all of our schools,” said John Marschhausen, superintendent of Dublin City Schools. “For families that don’t have transportation, can’t get off of work, struggle with a primary care, we’re able to provide that health support for that family.”
OhioHealth’s Partnership with the Dublin Food Pantry:
In December 2024, Dublin Methodist began working closely with the Dublin Food Pantry.
“The Food Pantry decided to develop several ‘Food is Medicine’ initiatives this year focusing on the integration of primary health and access to food with the goal of improving the overall health outcomes of our pantry customers and reducing chronic illness in the populations we serve,” Julie Erwin Rinaldi, M.E.d executive director of Dublin Food Pantry, said.
The pantry is a non-profit organization that has been providing members of the community with food since 1976 and has helped to serve all 8 zip codes in the Dublin City School District.
The Pantry has also expanded their outreach by building pop-up food pantries to help several hundred families in Dublin. This is an intentional approach to meeting families where they are most comfortable and help even more during the year when school is not in session.
“You can’t always tell who may be experiencing food insecurity, which is why our Dublin Pop-Up pantries are so important,” said Dr. Grant. “They provide a discreet, familiar, and convenient resource for our families in need. It is an investment in community health.”
The Dublin Methodist Residency Program team help coordinate dates and times with the Food Pantry for the pop-up pantries.
“We communicate those dates with the school district who then shares them with families,” said Dr. Bring. “We then assist with loading and delivering the food to one of three distribution sites. From there we help get residents registered to the Pantry to pass out food until it is gone.”
“As a district, when we think about food insecurity for children, it’s a concern for everyone, it’s a concern for OhioHealth, the food pantry, from the schools.” Dr. Marschhausen said. “We at the district are one of the community connectors, so as a community connector we can get information to parents, we can share the community resources available with parents.”
Recently, the OhioHealth sports medicine team noticed a growing number of student athletes that don’t have access to proper nutrition in Dublin and other counties across the state. In Dublin, the team has decided to partner with Dublin Food Pantry, too, to provide food and after-school snacks.
To help support the athletic training program, the Dublin Food Pantry also began partnering with Feed the Kids Columbus. Starting in Dublin Scioto High School, Feed the Kids will provide students athletes protein bars, trail mix, peanut butter crackers and nutrition bars, along with the food panty’s fresh fruit and other items.
“Those student athletes receiving free and reduced lunches, often times don’t have resources available to them to ensure something to eat after school, prior to practices and games,” Eddie Neville, OhioHealth sports medicine manager said. “As we know, this is imperative for them to perform their best, while helping to prevent injuries and illnesses.”
According to Dr. Marschhausen the district regularly communicates with families throughout the year, before games, practices, school events, summers and holidays, to ensure they are aware of available resources and where to access them. This includes the pop-up pantries.
OhioHealth and Dublin Food Pantry Continues Efforts Through New FARMacy Initiative:
OhioHealth is looking to further expand this by connecting families through a program called “FARMacy,” where resident physicians can look for people who are at risk of hunger and schedule a trip to the Dublin Food Pantry. Families will then receive a FARMacy Membership Card where they can access produce and other fresh food at the pantry. This program will also help improve many people’s health and wellbeing, especially those who have health issues.
Additionally, the OhioHealth Dublin Family Medicine team is continuing to partner with the Ohio School-Based Health Alliance so that they can strengthen their process for food insecurity screening and continue helping families get connected with services in the community.
Building Trusting Within the Community:
Dr. Marschhausen emphasized that the strong relationship between OhioHealth, the district, the Food Pantry and city leaders has built a foundation of trust with families in the community. This ongoing collaboration and aligned communication have fostered positive relationships and strengthened public confidence in the work being done.
“We are really excited and grateful for the support that Julie, her team and Dublin City Schools have given us, and we are excited to see how much more we will be able to build these initiatives in the coming years,” Dr. Bring said.
“As family physicians, we believe in treating the whole patient – body, mind and circumstances. Our continued partnership with Dublin City Schools and the Dublin Food Pantry is a powerful example of that commitment in action,” Dr. Grant said.
To Learn More About:
The Dublin Food Pantry and how to get access to food, necessities and more, click here.
OhioHealth at Dublin City Schools, click here.
OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Family Medicine Residency, click here.
Dublin Food Pantry photos – Courtesy: Ian Alexander Photography | Photos of the OhioHealth Team – Courtesy: OhioHealth
