Special to the Times-Free Press
More than 3,500 participants lined the Boston Common to take part in Project Breads 56th annual Walk for Hunger on Sunday, May 5, 2024. Hunger and healthcare champion, Greg Wilmot, President and CEO of East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) was honored with the Patrick Hughes Award for Social Justice, named for the late event founder who, 56 years ago, created the Walk for Hunger to inspire action for food justice.
Project Bread, the leading statewide food security organization in Massachusetts, selected Wilmot for the award due to his commitment to addressing food insecurity as a social justice issue and the work of EBNHC, the state’s largest community-based primary care provider in Massachusetts, to increase access to nutritional foods in the communities it serves.
Wilmot kicked off the 3-mile walk by participating in the opening ceremony with Project Bread President & CEO Erin McAleer, who thanked walk participants for helping those facing food insecurity and presented Greg with the Patrick Hughes Award for Social Justice.
“As a longtime participant in this walk, this is a special moment for me. I am honored to carry on the legacy of Patrick Hughes, who believed that people united for a common purpose can inspire change,” said Greg Wilmot, President and CEO of East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. “I am proud of EBNHC’s work to address food insecurity and thankful to have innovative partners like Project Bread who share our belief that access to healthy and nutritious food is not only a right, but essential for the health and wellbeing of our patients and our community.”
This year, the event aims to bring in $1.3 million to fight food insecurity statewide.
East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, rebranding as NeighborHealth June 2024, is one of the nation’s largest Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and the largest community-based primary care health system in Massachusetts, serving over 120,000 people and recognized by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as a National Quality Leader. For more than 50 years, EBNHC has offered access to comprehensive primary care, specialty care and emergency care for patients in the Commonwealth. In a first-of-its-kind merger in 2020, EBNHC joined forces with the South End Community Health Center and expanded services to patients who live and work in Boston’s South End and Roxbury neighborhoods.
EBNHC champions innovative care models to actively bridge health equity gaps in our low-income and immigrant communities with services unique from other health care providers in our state. In addition to primary and specialty care, EBNHC operates Massachusetts’ only satellite Emergency Department, which is the fourth busiest ED in Boston and is co-located with advanced radiology, including CT scan services, same-day Behavioral Health Urgent Care and an integrated pharmacy. Today, EBNHC remains dedicated to promoting and sustaining healthy communities, families, and individuals both in and out of the exam room by providing accessible, person-centered, compassionate, and high-quality health care services. For more information, visit www.ebnhc.org