The pandemic brought many challenges to our community, including access to food. According to the Oregon Food Bank, “Oregon’s food insecurity rate rose 21% between 2019 and 2020, with the height of the pandemic resulting in nearly 1.7 million neighbors seeking food assistance — double what we saw in the prior year.”

Five years ago, our Health Equity team realized that Latine community members living in Washington County needed better access to health resources. This is how our Promotores de Salud initiative at Adelante Mujeres began. As our staff and volunteers came together last month to celebrate this anniversary, we’ve been reflecting on how the initiative has grown in the past five years and the impact it’s had.