The Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital does great things for families in its community. That’s why we decided to donate $2 million to support Cleveland Clinic Children’s school-based healthcare program, which provides medical care to children while they are at school. Through the donation, the program will purchase a new mobile unit that will visit school districts in Northeast Ohio regularly throughout the school year to provide much-needed healthcare.
“Meijer cares deeply about the communities we serve, especially the health and wellbeing of the people who live in them,” Meijer President & CEO Rick Keyes said. “We’re pleased to continue our partnership with Cleveland Clinic to not only expand convenient access to healthcare services for children, but to also meet them where they are – at school.”
Children in Cleveland public schools are disproportionately affected by poverty, and there is great need for access to primary care. The mobile unit, which acts as a full-service pediatric office on wheels, provides health and wellness services to students from kindergarten through 12th grade, regardless of their health insurance status.
“This generous donation will help us serve our current patients and broaden our reach to others in need. The impact of this support is really immeasurable,” said Roopa Thakur, M.D., FAAP, pediatrician and medical director of Cleveland Clinic Children’s school-based healthcare program.
In the 2019-2020 school year, the school-based health program served 1,894 unique patients, and with the additional mobile unit the program hopes to expand participation across its partnering school districts. Now the mobile unit remains on-site at schools so students who need it can still access it, in addition to expanded telemedicine offerings.
Our relationship with the Cleveland Clinic goes back to before we even opened our first stores in the area. As we prepared to join the Greater Cleveland community, we wanted to get to know some of the nonprofits that were serving the area and Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital immediately stood out as a shining example.
Our partnership started in 2018 when we hosted a holiday party for Cleveland Clinic Children's with donated toys and snacks for patients and families and has grown from there. While we were unable to host our annual holiday party in 2020 due to the pandemic, we found other ways to support the hospital, donating gift cards to help with itss COVID-19 efforts throughout the pandemic.