Health New England Awards $250,000 to 5 Local Nonprofits

Posted on December 20, 2024

Grants honor Dr. Mark Keroack’s devotion to health equity

Springfield, MA (December 23, 2024) – Health New England has awarded $250,000 in grants to five local organizations in honor of former president and CEO of Baystate Health and chair of Health New England’s Board of Directors, Dr. Mark Keroack. Dr. Keroack retired earlier this year after serving in these roles for a decade.

The Dr. Mark A. Keroack Health Equity Grant was designed to fund the work of nonprofit organizations advancing equity in healthcare, a passion and priority of Dr. Keroack, who served on the committee that chose the winners.

These grantees will receive $50,000 each to fund these programs:

• Community Legal Aid’s Pioneer Valley Farmworker Medical-Legal Partnership embeds an attorney from its Central West Justice Center affiliate into the farmworker healthcare team at Baystate Brightwood Health Center, also known as “La Cliniquita.” The attorney will work onsite educating staff on patients’ legal rights, screening for social determinants of health, conducting ‘know-your-rights’ workshops, and collaborating with the care team to address systemic challenges.

• Wellspring Community Harvest will expand its Go Fresh Mobile Market’s prescription produce program to Brightwood, Mason Square and High Street Health Centers. The program connects individuals with diet-related illnesses to healthy foods through healthcare-prescribed fresh produce. The grant will also enable the distribution of health and nutrition information to the mobile market’s twelve other sites in public housing, senior housing, and community centers across Springfield. The initiative includes nutrition classes, screenings, and medical advice to promote the consumption of fruits and vegetables to reduce chronic health conditions like obesity, hypertension and diabetes.

• Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts will develop strategies to ensure equitable, dignified and quality care for undocumented immigrants and refugees seeking sexual and reproductive health services. The organization will use the funding to collect data, enhance language accessibility with translated materials, target its marketing efforts, and host “know-your-rights” education sessions. Planned Parenthood will also increase recruitment of multilingual staff.

• Stone Soup Cafe (Greenfield) will enhance its weekly Community Meal and Community Store programs. Every Saturday, the Community Meal provides 550-600 balanced, nutritious, scratch-cooked meals made from fresh ingredients to over 180 households on a pay-what-you-can basis, totaling 31,812 meals in 2023. The Community Store, open every Saturday, extends this impact by providing 80 to 110 households with groceries, produce, and personal care items.

• The Care Center’s (Holyoke) Healthy Homes, Healthy Families program will provide ten families headed by women with low income with safe stable housing, behavioral health services, healthcare, and a tuition-free education from November 2024 and October 2025.

“I am deeply honored that Health New England has chosen to celebrate my work with these generous grants to advance health equity in Western Massachusetts,” said Dr. Keroack. “These organizations are critical to improving the social determinants that can have such a devastating effect on people’s ability to be well. They are true partners in helping improve the health of our communities in so many ways and I am grateful to see their efforts recognized and supported.”

“In his leadership roles at Baystate Health and on Health New England’s board, Dr. Keroack has been a tireless advocate for making healthcare accessible to all,” said Richard Swift, president and CEO of Health New England. “He played an integral role in selecting these projects, and we are proud to honor his legacy by funding these impactful initiatives.”

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