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September 06, 2023
Oregon’s 2023 Immunization Champion
Nurse receives
national
immunization
award
By Beverly Corbell
Betty Brown, who heads a free food
program at Portland Open Bible Church,
has received a national award for stag-
ing Covid vaccination clinics that saw
about 1,000 people get the shot between
June of 2021 and March, 2023. About
4,000 also received free hot meals or
food boxes during that same period.
Brown, a registered nurse, who has
headed up a free food service at her
church for the past nine years, was
named Oregon’s 2023 Immunization
Champion by the Center for Disease
Control and the Association of Immu-
nization Managers.
Brown had already served a cultur-
ally diverse community in southeast
Portland through the church’s food
pantry, but said many were hesitant
about the vaccine.
To help allay their fears, she be-
gan by getting medical professionals,
speaking in their language or with
interpreters, to come to the church to
Betty Brown Oregon’s 2023
Immunization Champion
explain how the vaccine was created,
how it works and its risks, but she
didn’t stop there.
“I applied for grants and got com-
munity members to help stage week-
ly vaccination clinics,” she said. “We
also made them fun and offered cultur-
ally-specific food boxes.” The church
also offered housing resources and
harm reduction supplies to our un-
housed neighbors.
Brown said she also worked with
Multnomah County to provide wrap-
around services during the pandemic.
“Whenever someone diagnosed with
Covid was isolated, the county would
call us to provide food services to de-
liver,” she said.
She also created videos about the
vaccine in several languages, she said,
which people could view before or af-
ter they got free food at the church’s
twice weekly food pantry.
It helped that she got grants from
the Oregon Food Bank and the Oregon
Health Authority, she said.
When the pandemic hit, the num-
ber of people coming to the food pan-
try doubled to about 4,000 people a
month, Brown said, but many were
still hesitant about getting the Covid
vaccine, she said.
“Over my career as a nurse I’ve seen
way to many people die unnecessarily,
essentially from lack of information or
bad information,” she said.
Brown said community members
asked a lot of questions and the med-
ical professionals listened with em-
pathy, answered their questions, and
slowly, trust and confidence grew.
The church, on SE 92nd Ave., serves a
large immigrant community, Brown said.
“We have a huge amount of Chinese
and Vietnamese,” she said, as well as a
recent influx of Ukrainians.
With the help of her son, Aaron
Brown, senior pastor at the church, the
food bank was founded in 2015 after
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a string of break-ins at area churches,
when it was discovered food was the
main thing that was stolen.
Many organizations helped with the
food pantry, but it soon became evi-
dent that people preferred food that
suited their ethnic tastes.
“You can’t just give Chinese and
African Americans the same food,”
so she and her son created, with input
from the Oregon Food Bank, made-to-
order food boxes that can be ordered
ahead of time.
Now that the need for mass vac-
cines is over, Brown is focused on ex-
panding the food pantry, which served
6,200 people last year, and she could
use some help, with more volunteers
as well as donations to the program.
“What people need to know is that
our communities become healthier
when those who have help those in
need,” she said, and monthly contribu-
tions would be greatly appreciated.
She also hopes to get more grocery
stores involved.
“We have a lot of stores that help us,
but we could double that,” she said.
“Starting in September we will try to
get more grocery stores to provide us
with fresh foods and vegetables.”
To learn more about Portland Open
Bible Community Pantry, visit the
website at www.pobcpantry.com, send
and email to pantry@pobcpantry.com,
or call Brown at 503-442-8228.