They plan to break ground on the project in June.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Mid-Ohio Food Collective is teaming up with The Ohio State University to bring health care to their new Eastland Prosperity Center off Refugee Road.
"Not only primary care but behavioral health services, women services including prenatal care, dentistry and dispensing pharmacy," said Candy Rinehart, CEO of the university's Total Health Care Center.
Rinehart said this is an opportunity to bring health care to an area that really needs it.
"This is an area that's been needing these services for a while. Dentistry and pharmacy are deserts here," Rinehart said.
Matt Habash, president and CEO of the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, said they have been looking to bring health care to Eastland in southeast Columbus. He said health care and eating healthy go hand in hand.
"As people are talking to their doctors and then get referrals to come in and get nutritious food all in the same space, everyone wins," Habash said.
Quay Barnes, a lifelong resident in the city's east side, said the project is a long time coming.
"We have had very little social services and health care services on the east side," Barnes said.
Barnes said typically people in the community travel for health care, but now that will change.
"We see a bright future. We see better than what we were before," Barnes added.
The Eastland Prosperity Center will also have free groceries and several social services. Habash said over half of the people living in Eastland are eligible for services at the center.
"To have a community center hub for a community that has a lot of different health and human services in it is a needed anchor in the community for a long time," Habash said.
The center will open in June of 2026.
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