Wesley UMC Co-Op Café and Patio Pantry
Located in the heart of City Heights, the Wesley United Methodist Church (Wesley UMC) has operated the Co-Op Café and Patio Pantry for many years. Before the pandemic, this community space offered clients the opportunity to enjoy a hot meal, conversation, and access to a variety of personal services three days a week. Since the start of social distancing, the pantry has shifted to a five day distribution, offering clients ‘cook’ and ‘no cook’ bags Monday-Friday.
Wesley UMC became a NPP site under the UC San Diego Center for Community Health in the summer of 2020. Initially working together to address COVID related challenges and to source needed resources, the partnership has continued and developed in this new year. In February, in partnership with Rady Children’s Hospital, the NPP team hosted two vaccine outreach sessions during the distributions at Wesley UMC. Equipped with resources in six different languages (Vietnamese, English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Simplified Chinese), the NPP team provided general information on the vaccine and collected contact information for those interested and eligible in vaccination.
After the sessions, the NPP team provided the information to connections at Rady Children’s Hospital, who then contacted the clients directly to schedule a vaccine appointment. In total, the NPP team provided Rady with contact information for over 40 individuals interested in receiving the vaccine. Those eligible were immediately scheduled to get the first shot.
All partners in this initiative will continue to explore ways of connecting clients with much needed community resources, including the COVID-19 vaccines. The NPP team is so grateful for these partnerships and proud of the incredible dedication the Wesley UMC has to supporting and uplifting their community!
