How the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic Is Providing Food and Nutrition for Tribal Members
Feed the Children is proud to work with hundreds of local nonprofit organizations across the United States. This network of partners spans thousands of miles, but it begins just a few blocks away from our office building in Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma City Indian Clinic is less than a five-minute drive from Feed the Children’s office building. The Clinic has served Oklahoma City for nearly 50 years, providing quality healthcare, nutrition training, and other services for the state’s tribal members.
On a recent chilly morning, the Indian Clinic hosted a Feed the Children Resource Rally. Four hundred local families received a 25-lb box of food and a 15-lb box of hygiene items and household essentials.
“One in four of our patients have food insecurities,” the Clinic’s Chief Development Officer David Toahty explained. “Many of them are working poor, having to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet and feed their children. And so an event like this can really provide relief for them.”
Like Feed the Children, the Indian Clinic is focused on helping the next generation grow up healthy.
“At the clinic, about 27% of our, of our patients are under the age of 17,” said Toahty. “If we can start them making healthy choices at an early age, then they will actually be able to benefit from it. We have several children’s programs here about education and nutrition. Being able to eat healthy now will save them from having to be sick at a later age.”
One mom who attended the event told us something similar. Starr is raising three young sons, and said that she wants to make sure they grow up able to have a healthy relationship with food.
“I want to make sure that they have the right nutrition to live long, to be healthy, and then just to be able to teach them healthy eating patterns,” she explained.
Despite working full time, Starr says she has been struggling lately to keep up with rising food costs.
“I have WIC and food stamps (SNAP), but even with that, the price of groceries has just gone up,” she said. “Fruits, vegetables, everything.”
Parents like Starr are actively looking out for their kids’ health, despite adverse circumstances. We believe that it’s important for all parents to have the bandwidth to encourage good nutrition habits – something that can’t happen if they don’t have enough to eat in the first place.
In the long term, helping our children grow into healthy adults helps everyone – from the kids themselves, to the healthcare system, to all the others who use it. We appreciate all of our community partners, donors, and volunteers who support our mission to create a hunger-free America.
