At its 15th anniversary commemoration Wednesday, the Health Forward Foundation called on its community to join in an aggressive mission against the racial inequities that shadow the health and prosperity of many Kansas Citians.

Accompanied by area artists and poets, Health Forward’s virtual gathering colored itself in beauty and pain.

“Somewhere in this city,” poet Glenn North said, reciting his work, “The House of Seven Hungers,” “another hungry child awakes to another empty refrigerator, another empty plate . . .”

His poem, which followed the declarations of the foundation’s leadership of renewed commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, traced the tragic course of a child who grows up starving for sensations of the mind, eye, nose, mouth, cells, heart and stomach.

“The question is,” the poet said, “What is it we will do while the hungry child awaits?”

To watch the anniversary celebration, including “The House of the Seven Hungers,” on YouTube, click here.

Since its inception under its original name, The Health Care Foundation, in 2005, Health Forward has distributed more than $300 million in grants, focusing on helping “the uninsured and underserved,”

LINC was instrumental in the creation of the foundation as its longtime chair, the late Landon Rowland, rallied other community leaders to fight for a lasting public benefit in the sale of Health Midwest and its hospitals to HCA.

The massive sale of a non-profit — Health Midwest — to a for-profit corporation — HCA — was a “historic deal,” Rowland said at the first public hearing in November 2002. “It is unlike any business deal seen by members of this community, because it truly can affect their health and well-being for decades to come.”

Health Forward’s board chair, Marshaun Butler, looked back at what the leveraged funds for public use have accomplished since then, starting with a $25,000 contribution to the campaign for Kansas City’s health levy, and following with hundreds of investments, such as helping safety net hospitals expand clinic hours that have resulted in 73,000 additional visits to clinics.

Recently, the foundation invested in the successful statewide campaign in Amendment 2 to expand Medicaid to 230,000 Missourians.

“Now we are embarking on a new journey in a new era and time that requires us to more deeply explore and address the social factors that impede health,” Butler said.

“It is clear we’ve reached a pivotal moment in our country’s history,” she said, as it is clear in the pain of police shootings, inequitable economic hardships and disproportional suffering of Covid in minority communities “that the underlying structure of racism has been laid bare.”

These injustices are not new — even centuries old, said Health Forward President and CEO Qiana Thomason.

“At this critical moment where the interconnectivity of health, race and economic inequality are clearer than ever before,” Thomason said, “Health Forward is re-imagining our strategic positioning to accomplish our mission” to build “power and assets in black and brown communities.”

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer