Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center

Welcome to Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center's CafeGive page. When you purchase items through CafeGive in partnership with Virginia Garcia, you enable over 30,000 people per year, who typically experience barriers to receiving care, to obtain high quality, comprehensive and culturally appropriate healthcare.

—Gil Muñoz, CEO
Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center

Virginia Garcia was founded in memory of six-year-old Virginia Garcia, who needlessly died from a simple foot wound which developed into sepsis after she and her family were unable to access quality healthcare in their first language that would have saved her life. Local community leaders joined forces in an effort to ensure such a tragedy would never occur again and opened the first Virginia Garcia clinic in 1975. Virginia Garcia now serves the communities of Washington and Yamhill Counties with healthcare at locations in Beaverton, Cornelius, Hillsboro, McMinnville, Tigard and Forest Grove. We also reach out to people in rural areas with our mobile clinic.

The services we provide typically include primary healthcare, vision care, dental care, behavioral healthcare, pharmacy, pre and post natal care, health education, migrant outreach and much more. We are known in the community for building collaborative partnerships with other local service agencies and funders to build innovative programs which influence how healthcare is delivered in Oregon.

Our patients are our primary focus, of course, and they can depict the care they receive better than anyone.

Take five-year-old Javier. His family is from Guatemala. Spanish is his family's first language. When our dentist saw Javier, she saw a cavity in every one of his teeth. His mother tells us that he could not eat hot or cold food. His oral health had gotten so bad that he couldn't even eat tortillas. The entire six members of the household share one toothbrush. And, it is not always used.

Sadly, for children like Javier, the constant aching of each tooth has been such a daily occurrence it is assumed to be normal. The children we see often have cavities in almost all of their baby teeth. It starts with baby bottle syndrome and only worsens without intervention. Time and again when asked if their teeth hurt, these kids say, "no." Sadly, it isn't until they have restorative care that they realize they've been in constant pain. This prevents them from focusing in school, and it leads to health problems and serious lifelong dental problems, if left untreated.

Because Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center was there for Javier, he has a chance to have a healthy life. Plus, every member of his family now owns his or her very own toothbrush! Through education, restorative care and prevention, we are making a difference in the lives of thousands of children like Javier. This then has a ripple effect onto the entire community, not just for today, but for a brighter and healthier future.

Thank you for choosing to partner with Virginia Garcia when making an online purchase. Your investment in our programs is very valuable to us and we look forward to working together with you to provide healthcare to vulnerable populations for years to come.