Advocacy
Whether through time, talent or financial contributions, we are proud to support our communities. We listen to our residents and provide them with the specific help that they need – when they need it.
We also work to ensure that you're a part of the discussions that affect your health through a variety of education and advocacy initiatives. Our GrassRoots Green program fosters involvement from Northwest Ohio communities through activities such as registration drives, community town hall meetings and candidate debates. ProMedica is also home to Fields of Green, an umbrella for several health and nutrition education programs.
In the Spotlight
Follow the links below for more information about highlighted content.
Legislative Event Focused on Senior Hunger
On April 29, 2013, ProMedica participated in a legislative breakfast hosted by the Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio. Regional organizations and elected officials gave remarks pertaining to the hidden issue of hunger amongst seniors. In the below video, which was shown at the event, the Area Office on Aging puts a face on this issue by documenting the struggles of three older adults as they try to obtain enough food.
Toledo-Area Leaders Come to the Table
Nearly a quarter of families in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan do not have access to healthy food. ProMedica President and CEO Randy Oostra and Toledo Mayor Mike Bell invited leaders from all over the region to Come to the Table and discuss ways to end hunger in our communities. They challenged area leaders to work together to establish hunger-free zones in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.
For more information about the Come to the Table hunger initiative, contact ProMedica’s Advocacy department at 419-469-3896.
View a video below of Randy Oostra and Mayor Mike Bell discussing community hunger.
Come to the Table School Food Drive Competition
Hunger is a hidden problem in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. More than one out of five families in our region receives aid to help feed their families. This epidemic leads to significant health problems for community members, especially children. Children’s growth and ability to learn can suffer without proper nutrition. In adults, poor diets lead to poor health. As a healthcare leader in the regions we serve, ProMedica is working with community partners to address the problem of hunger. This year, ProMedica challenged elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in our service area to Come to the Table. Help us to help others.
Congratulations to Christ the King School in Toledo, which raised more than 4300 pounds of non-perishable food items during their one-week food drive. In addition to the food collected, the school’s 8th grade student council members elected to donate their entire $1,000 award from ProMedica to the Assumption Outreach Center’s food program.
In addition to Christ the King, 14 other schools from the Ohio counties of Lucas, Sandusky, Seneca and Wood, as well as Hillsdale County in Michigan, raised more than 17,000 pounds of food during their respective food drives. All food collected was donated to a food program of the school’s choice in their own community.
Visit our Come to the Table resources page for ideas and templates on conducting your own food drive or weekend back-pack program.
Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry
Recently, ProMedica was selected as a Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry Ally, which will bring additional resources to the northwest Ohio community to help end childhood hunger by 2015. One program, which helps to provide free lunches to schoolchildren in need through the summer, is supported by ProMedica’s Advocacy Fund.
View the video below to learn more about No Kid Hungry actiities in our community.
No Kid Hungry Documentary
The new documentary, "Hunger Hits Home," takes a first-hand look at the crisis of childhood hunger in America through the eyes of the parents, children, anti-hunger activists, educators and politicians on the frontlines of the battle. The film is part of an ongoing partnership between Food Network and Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry Campaign to end childhood hunger in America by 2015.
Addressing Hunger Essential to Improving Health
The relationship between eating well and good health is solidly acknowledged. We learn from an early age that “you are what you eat” and consuming fruits and vegetables is important. With the growth of the obesity epidemic, much of the attention to food consumption in America has focused on the volume, caloric density, and fat content of food consumed, with good reason. What’s often missing in our discussion of good health and food consumption, however, is the tragic level of hunger in America. In the richest nation, millions suffer the pangs of hunger and their health suffers as a result.
In a recent white paper developed by ProMedica and the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, we examine the extent of hunger in America, the inextricable links of hunger to poor health and the need to consider hunger as a health issue to make the changes needed.
Grants and Charitable Giving
ProMedica approved grants in 2010 totaling nearly $500,000 to eight area nonprofit organizations that provide food, clothing and shelter to combat the growing concern of homelessness and hunger in Ohio. And, in 2011, ProMedica donated a refrigerated box truck to the Toledo Seagate Foodbank to help the organization serve its 18-county area. These contributions were made possible by the ProMedica Advocacy Fund, which was created in 2009 with the Toledo Community Foundation in accordance with our mission to improve your health and well-being. The fund is designed to assist nonprofit organizations located in and providing services for residents of ProMedica’s 27-county service area with programs that provide food, clothing and shelter. In 2010, the ProMedica Board of Trustees approved grants totaling nearly $500,000 to eight area nonprofit organizations.
These organizations received awards:
- Associated Charities of Lenawee County
- Cherry Street Mission Ministries
- Erie-Huron Counties Community Action Commission
- Mobile Meals of Toledo
- Saint Vincent dePaul Society of Fostoria
- The Salvation Army of Hillsdale
- Toledo Seagate Food Bank
- United Way of Defiance County
Helping Communities Fight Obesity
Our communities have also been affected by the national obesity epidemic. More than 30 percent of children and adolescents in Ohio are overweight or obese, according to the Ohio Department of Health, and more than 65 percent of adults fall into the same category. These statistics place a significant percentage of Ohio communities at risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and more. To that end, ProMedica introduced the Fields of Green initiative in 2008 to raise awareness about proper nutrition and exercise and to increase access to healthier food in under-served areas. Within this program, the Healthy Kids Conversation Map® program was developed to empower elementary school children and their parents to make good decisions related to eating and physical activity. We have also partnered with The Center for Innovative Food Technology to establish the first vertical hydroponic garden in the Toledo area.
Learn more about fighting hunger through the Come to the Table initiative.
Being Advocates for our Communities
We further support our area residents through government relations efforts. We work with public officials, community stakeholders and our own hospital departments to ensure that local and national healthcare policies best serve the needs of our communities.
Learn more about Government Relations.
Additional Resources
Hospitals brace for budget cuts
It's clear that the healthcare industry will need to shoulder some of the burden of national debt reduction, Community Hospital President Jim Ulrich told the hospital's board of directors.
Proposed cuts could be devastating to hospitals
Meyersdale Medical Center, Somerset Hospital and Windber Medical Center — among all other rural hospitals in the nation — are facing huge cuts in federal funding if the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction cuts Medicare.
This Is Not a Drill: Speak Up for Rural Hospitals
This is not a monthly test of your outdoor warning siren. I have worked in rural health for over thirty years. We have never faced a situation as threatening as the federal cuts that may hit rural hospitals. Senator Tom Coburn (an Oklahoma Republican) speaks for many when he said he understands the need to be careful when scaling back government spending. As he told Fox News, “to continue to waste $350 billion a year in the federal government, that’s pure waste or fraud or duplication.”
United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, colloquially referred to as the Supercommittee and Supercongress, is a joint select committee of the United States Congress, created by the Budget Control Act of 2011 on August 2, 2011. The act was intended to prevent the rapid process of sovereign default that would have resulted from the 2011 United States debt-ceiling crisis, and has been interpreted as a reaction to frustration over prolonged partisan political disputes during an uncertain economic struggling to recover from the late-2000s recession.
National Rural Health Association
The obstacles faced by health care providers and patients in rural areas are vastly different than those in urban areas. Rural Americans face a unique combination of factors that create disparities in health care not found in urban areas. Economic factors, cultural and social differences, educational shortcomings, lack of recognition by legislators and the sheer isolation of living in remote rural areas all conspire to impede rural Americans in their struggle to lead a normal, healthy life.
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