MA City Launches Partnership Between Health Center and Grocery Store

A new health center offers residents primary care and social services, as well as access to healthy food and eating tips

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By Ella Tores

Boston Globe

In an area that was once littered with liquor bottles and often labeled a food desert, now sits the new Brockton Neighborhood Health Center.

The $22 million development, which includes a collaboration with the neighboring Vicente’s Tropical Grocery, held its ribbon-cutting Sept. 3 with plans to officially open on Sept. 21. In attendance were, among other dignitaries, US Senator Elizabeth Warren and Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter. The new health center at 160 Pleasant St. is Brockton’s second; the main health facility is just a few blocks away, at 63 Main St.

The new center and grocery store are working together “to make a difference in our zip code and create an environment where people have a chance to be healthy,” said Sue Joss, the health center’s chief executive officer.

The approximately 13,600-square-foot facility will hold 27 examining rooms and is expected to see nearly 6,700 patients a year. Boston Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a group working to revitalize neighborhoods, invested $8 million in the health center and $3.6 million in the market.

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