Christian Center Farmacie RX and mobile food pantry partners with local wellness nonprofits

More Mobile Food Pantry offerings have been added to the free services provided by the Christian Center like legal advice and mental health counseling, and law-enforcement support. Photo: courtesy of the Christian Center of Park City

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Meeting people where they are, literally and figuratively, the Christian Center of Park City (CCPC)’s Mobile Food Pantries have been bringing free, healthy food to all corners of the County for a couple years. For this summer, they’ve brought on some new community partner entities to serve people more thoroughly thus creating a one-stop-shop.

“In the spirit of bringing services to the community, we have invited like-minded nonprofit partners to join us at our mobile pantry events,” Matt Melville, programs director for the CCPC told TownLift. “Partners that join us include: People’s Health Clinic, Mountain Mediation Center, Summit Community Gardens, Park City Police Department, and Summit County Health Department.”

Dates, locations, and times for the Mobile Food Pantry, as well as the Food Pantries in both Park City and Heber can be found here.

Jaime Mira, the CCPC food pantry director, told TownLift, “It’s great that with the addition of these community partners we can truly meet the basic but comprehensive needs of our wonderful clients who visit the pantry.”

Also new this summer is the Farmacie RX program. The CCPC along with the People’s Health Clinic and Summit Community Gardens are making sure people are getting all the healthy foods they need.

Clients of the People’s Health Clinic who may be lacking in some nutritional opportunities can now be literally written a prescription for fresh produce. They then bring that prescription to the Cristian Center Park City or Heber location of Food Pantries, or one of the many CCPC Mobile Food Pantries and receive their fruits and vegetables. Those fruits and vegetables are acquired from Summit Community Gardens and/or other local farms and gardens in the summer. In the winter the CCPC may keep their shelves stocked via already established partner produce suppliers.

It’s all a circle of helping each others and each other’s entities throughout the community. The Park City Community Foundation’s own Women’s Giving Fund is a contributing player to this program conceptually and financially, as well as a $100,000 grant the CCPC has received from the USDA and more specifically the Utah Human Services Department.

Melville said, “The Christian Center is addressing food insecurity in Summit and Wasatch Counties one family at a time.”