Employees at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) have been busy giving back to the local community through the Community Service Committee (CSC). In August we blogged about CSC’s back to school supplies donation to Building Hope Inc. and the CSC has since organized other service activities.

Earlier in the fall NACHC hit the ground walking (literally) for the Walk to End HIV  and raised over $2,000 to support Whitman-Walker Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that provides dependable, high-quality, comprehensive and accessible healthcare to those infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

This month, the Community Service Committee ramped up efforts with two service activities.  The first was a Saturday trip to the Capitol Area Food Bank to sort and pack food for needy families in the DC Metro Area. The food bank serves over 500,000 people and distributes 42 million pounds of food annually, including17 million pounds of fresh produce.

Second, the CSC has collected warm winter clothes—for children and adults—to donate to DC’s Homeless Children’s Playtime Project.  The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project seeks to nurture health child development and reduce the effects of trauma of children living in temporary housing programs in DC. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, one in 45 children experience homeless in the US each year and by age twelve, 83% of homeless children have been exposed to at least one serious violent event. The Playtime Project hopes to mitigate the effects of trauma by providing weekly activities, healthy snacks, and opportunities for children to play and learn.

The CSC has many projects lined up for the coming months. Stay tuned for more updates.