Presenter: Matthew Fairchild, Biological Sciences: Physiology & Neurobiology, Global Public Health Scholars
I will be completing my GPH practicum project by leading a program called Table of Grace at my church in Westminster MD. Every Tuesday, I lead a team of 4 young adult and about 5-7 older adult volunteers as we assemble meals for the homeless community in Westminster. We make both bagged lunches and hot meals and we serve community members outdoors to observe COVID safety precautions. Ours is the only community meal that provides a wide variety of hot meals as well as bagged lunches, and no one leaves our table hungry. We serve approximately 100 meals/week. In this role, I have also collaborated with the county health department to distribute prescription drug disposal packets, information about community services, and cold weather supplies like gloves and hats. For a while when times were especially hard in the county, I also partnered with another local organization called Carroll Food Sunday to provide more substantive meal bags for over 400 families. In the coming months, our church will be a vaccine distribution center and I will be helping to communicate with the community about the importance of getting vaccinated. My role as a leader of Table of Grace is obviously primarily about shopping for and serving food, but I use the position to deliver all sorts of other public health information/resources to the community members who need it the most.