Grantee Spotlight
San Mateo County Health Foundation
For over three decades, San Mateo County Health Foundation (SMCHF) has helped ensure that everyone in San Mateo County has access to quality healthcare and essential resources, regardless of financial circumstance, by investing in and creating programs that meet the needs of their community.
“Our impact has really been remarkable because we're often able to intervene before a crisis actually becomes something so much worse. So we've helped 1000s of individuals and families overcome barriers that might otherwise prevent them from recovering, or even managing their health,” says Dana Floro, SMCHF Director of Operations.
One of SMCHF’s most recent and successful programs is Caring Hands in Health, which provides immediate financial assistance to patients facing urgent challenges. From housing and transportation to food, medical costs, and basic necessities, this program bridges the gap when insurance and public programs fall short.
The foundation also offers many other resources for the community, like its Food Farmacy, which provides groceries to patients and families experiencing food insecurity by supplying hundreds of households with food boxes, and Bundle of Joy, which supports families during pregnancy and early infancy with essential baby items and trusted guidance for new parents.
Both programs succeed in part because of the strong partnerships SMCHF facilitates. Through collaborations with organizations such as fellow PACF grantee Samaritan House, which helps provide resources for the produce boxes, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, whose employees have participated in volunteer building events that help make essential baby supplies available, the foundation connects community support with people who need it most. SMCHF continues to respond to changing healthcare needs by introducing new resources, strengthening partnerships, and adapting its programs to better serve local residents.
As its work has grown and evolved, SMCHF has also refreshed the way it communicates its mission so that community members can more easily understand the support available to them. Its new tagline, “Supporting Health, Empowering Hope,” captures both the practical assistance the foundation provides and the broader sense of possibility it seeks to create.
“We created a tagline that's called Supporting Health, Empowering Hope, that really perfectly captures the mission. It just really reflects both the practice support that we provide and the hope we strive to create,” says Dana.
The importance of this organization is not only in the work it does, but in the ways it communicates and shares its resources with the community. The organization works diligently to help people learn about the resources available to them, both for the good of the community and to ensure the funding that they rely on continues. Interacting and connecting with the foundation is one of the best ways for the community to support San Mateo County as a whole.
“They don't have to give us something tangible in that way. But spreading the word about us is more valuable than writing a check. So all of these partnerships work and help us, and we try to help those community partners as much as we can as well,” says John Jurow, SMCHF CEO.
Help share their mission of strengthening the community through equitable access to health care. To learn more about San Mateo County Foundation and share its important resources, visit their website today.
