Yale’s Neighborhood Health Project recently provided flu and COVID-19 vaccines to un- or under-insured New Haven community members, along with other services.
Yale School of Nursing students Ezra Otto (left) and Christina Pantzer co-directed Neighborhood Health Project’s pop-up vaccine clinic at New Haven’s Loaves and Fishes food pantry.
Led by Yale School of Nursing students Christina Pantzer and Ezra Otto, a team of Yale nursing and medical students administered 120 vaccinations to New Haven community members over four Saturdays.
Directing the vaccine clinic has been a rewarding experience, say Pantzer and Otto — like all their work with NHP.
“Through NHP, I know I’m doing something to increase access to health care,” said Pantzer, who has served as director of the NHP pop-up vaccine clinic for the past two years. The flu vaccine pop-up clinic is a recurring event; this fall was the first to also offer COVID-19 vaccines. “We’re serving vulnerable populations who are uninsured, new to the health care system, or have a language barrier — people who our health care system is not really made for. With the clinic, we’re helping people get access to vaccines who might not get them if we weren’t there.”
Part of what makes the NHP vaccine clinic special, said Pantzer, is that it goes to where people already are — it doesn’t ask people to take time out of their schedules to go to a clinic elsewhere. And as Loaves and Fishes serves around 400 community members every Saturday, the clinic is able to reach a lot of people.
“Being able to meet people where they are and speak to them in their language — many are primarily Spanish speakers — it creates a bridge and a way to start conversations around health care,” said Otto, who first joined NHP as a volunteer in 2023 and is now the special projects director. “I’m so happy that we’re able to do that.”
Neighborhood Health Project, an interdisciplinary collaboration between students at Yale School of Nursing, Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health, and the physician associate program, started in 2003. At NHP’s main Loaves and Fishes clinic, volunteers offer blood pressure and blood sugar screenings, access to various health care items — such as condoms, pads and tampons, emergency contraception, and Narcan — and opportunities to ask a doctor or nurse practitioner general health questions. Those clinicians also direct people to clinics where they can access regular health care and to resources related to specific needs.
“We’ve had people ask about a variety of concerns,” said Otto. “That people know they can come see a medical professional and ask them medical questions, it’s a really great connection point.”
The clinic’s vaccines were provided by the Connecticut Department of Public Health; any extra doses were transferred to the Yale Health Pharmacy to distribute to pediatric patients or un- or under-insured adults.
“The partnership with NHP has been amazing,” said Lorrice Grant, executive director of Loaves and Fishes. “That our neighbors get to access these clinics at the same time that they’re doing other things is really incredible.”
Loaves and Fishes got its start in 1982, when founder Hanne Howard began stocking food at the Episcopal Church of St. Paul and St. James to give to neighbors who needed it. Loaves and Fishes still works out of the Wooster Square church today.
“We’re open every Saturday and we don’t close for holidays,” said Grant. “We want it to be something people can depend on.”
On one crisp October morning, NHP volunteers began setting up tables inside the entry to the church’s basement and welcomed community members from 8:30 to 10:30. As individuals headed in for food or clothing, volunteers invited them to the clinic in English and Spanish, highlighting what services were available. Another volunteer walked down the line of those waiting to enter with the same information. Several visitors stopped to get a vaccine or a health screening.
For NHP volunteers, the partnership with Loaves and Fishes has enabled them to establish meaningful relationships with New Haven community members.
“Building relationships is such a big part of NHP,” said Pantzer. “Even if someone doesn’t want to get a vaccine that day or isn’t interested in our services, we’re providing a friendly face and hopefully building their trust in health care so that if they do ever need something, they feel like they have somewhere where they can reach out.”
Loaves and Fishes is located at 57 Olive St.