Community Partner: Walnut Hills
Walnut Hills is a vibrant and changing neighborhood 2 miles northeast of downtown Cincinnati. It is a majority-Black area that is home to a rich, interconnected network of community service organizations which address gaps in resources and access. For example, the only grocery store in the neighborhood, Kroger, closed in 2017, followed in 2022 by a key source of food and pharmacy access, CVS. The neighborhood is now a food desert. For several years, Dr. Anna Goroncy, Christ Hospital’s Family Medicine residents, and UCCOM students have partnered with these community organizations to identify community needs and bolster their ongoing work. Current projects include:
- Nutrition classes focused on specific health conditions that teach residents to harness the power of food as medicine.
- A community garden that provides fresh food while helping neighbors learn more about gardening and healthy eating.
- Friday food distribution events that bring multiple organizations together, including La Soupe and Freestore Foodbank, to offer free food and other resources to residents.
- Focused food distribution efforts at apartment buildings that provide affordable housing.
Working within the Walnut Hills community provides much more than volunteer opportunities; it provides the space to meet and learn from those that have lived in the community for decades and to form lasting relationships between UCCOM students and the neighbors and organizations serving Walnut Hills.
About Taylor
I grew up in northeast Ohio and got my undergraduate degrees in Theatre Arts and English Literature at Miami University. I then spent my 20’s in Chicago, working in marketing by day and theatre by night. I did some food access work in Chicago and continued to explore that interest during medical school, through partnerships with several Walnut Hills organizations. The service elective provided a wonderful opportunity to build upon the relationships I’ve created in Walnut Hills and invest further in the work being done there. Come summer 2025, I hope to put this background to work in a Family Medicine residency program.
Taylor Fenderbosch (she/her)