Good afternoon shoppers. Children’s Defense Fund is at the front of the store.
We can assist you in filling out applications for CHIP and children’s Medicaid.
Those are two programs that provide health insurance for children.
Come sign up today, we’ve got fifteen minutes left. Thanks you.
Texas is one of the states that has the highest uninsured rate for children in the country.
One point two million, who are in need of a path to essential
medical services that will keep them healthy.
And to that end there were extensive campaigns involving many community partners
to raise the awareness of how serious this problem was.
Children’s Defense Fund has had a partner of Fiesta, for example, where we have
partnered to make sure that families coming in are given information about
health benefits that they may be eligible for, including onsite enrollment.
When Fiesta started out we catered to locations that really didn’t have
supermarkets, they had little corner groceries. And we recognize that many of
our customers still live in underserved communities. They’re hard working
parents and they want to provide the very best for their families.
And so anything that we can do to enhance that effort, we’re not just about
selling of the groceries but also trying to help our customers out in any way we can.
On a regular basis we have registration and sign up for families. It’s just an
additional service that we’re offering to them and making it convenient for them
to be able to sign up for insurance.
We have families who’ve benefited. The Valles family for example, who have two
children and were very discouraged and concerned about their family.
It was vital for us to get them insurance, because God forbid something happened.
We had no idea that they were eligible for any kind of health insurance.
Maybe something but we weren’t sure exactly what.
We were going grocery shopping and they came up to us.
They asked us if we had health insurance for our children, we said no.
They asked us if we were interested and we said yes, obviously.
We filled out some paperwork and got some responses and that was that.
So, it was a good day.
Their children did get enrolled in health coverage and so, we always ask the
question what if Fiesta had not opened their doors to us?
Would that family have been helped?
Understand the needs of the community and put those needs first, knowing that
the outcome is going to be a positive one and that some good will come from you efforts.
Businesses are a very powerful leverage in the community to stand up and say
I as a business person am committed to healthy children
and here’s what we have done.
It fostered a lot of good will and the customers do care.
They care that you’re looking out for them.
I mean, there are no words that can explain how nice the people were for helping us.
Going shopping for beans, rice, and come out with health insurance.
Our Fiesta partnership of about a decade had enrolled thousands of children.
A business can make a difference in the community that they are in.
That’s a real good feeling.