Cullman’s Good Samaritan Clinic is known locally as a provider of no-cost healthcare for people in need — not a go-to destination for serving up Thanksgiving dinner.
But when would-be donors go in search of a place where they can lend a holiday hand, it’s one of the first area nonprofits they think of — not because the clinic knows food, but because it’s built a two-decade reputation for knowing how to get the most mileage from limited resources.
“This organization’s solid,” said Zach Lee, the chair-elect of the Good Samaritan board who — at least on Nov. 21 — showed up to the clinic not as a board member, but as an emissary of the Cullman Lowe’s store, which gifted several ready-made Thanksgiving meals to the clinic for patients to take home and enjoy.
“There’s no ‘sludge’ with their operation.,” he said. “Everything the Good Samaritan clinic takes in, they use to its maximum effect.”
Alongside Lowe’s manager Brian Roberts, Lee (the store’s operations manager), greeted patients in the clinic’s lobby and carried the sizable boxed meals — all purchased from Publix — out to the patients’ waiting vehicles as a small seasonal gesture from a large company that said it has to assess its year-round local outreach carefully.
But the clinic’s reputation for both efficiency and getting to know the community it serves makes Good Sam (as it’s often referred to by staffers and patients alike) an ideal clearinghouse for charitable giving.
Good Samaritan operates with a full-time staff of seven people (a director, an office manager, a pair of certified pharmacy technicians, a nurse practitioner, an LPN assistant, and a phlebotomist).
In 2022, the clinic assisted 554 individual patients over the course of more than 3,600 on-site visits, said director Jolanda Hutson, while dispensing more than 17,000 prescriptions valued at more than $5.3 million at no cost to the uninsured patients who qualify for the clinic’s services.
“We operate like a primary care clinic: We establish relationships with patients just as any patient would with their doctor,” said Hutson.
“Our staff is truly amazing. Not only are they incredibly experienced and skilled in what they do in their roles here, but every member of our staff has a heart,” she said, gesturing toward a small Christmas tree in the hallway.
“One of our staff’s small groups at their church donated $300, and then went out and bought $10 gift cards with it. The staff put in almost that much more of their own money again, more or less doubling that original amount, and placed ornaments on that Christmas tree with the gift cards. So now, when our patients come through, they’ll get to go pick out an ornament — and a gift card — off the tree. The staff, they come up with these ideas, and it’s not just one person: It’s all of them working together.”
It’s the clinic’s combination of professional expertise and genuine passion for service, said Lee, that keep Lowe’s coming back every Thanksgiving to partner with the nonprofit in identifying those patients who could use a little holiday help.
“Brian and I have been doing this for so many years and we love to give back to our community — and what better way to do that than let Jolanda put us in touch with the people who need it the most?” he said. “We want to give — and she knows where that need is. Our role in this is to promote the good deeds that this clinic does. We don’t want the spotlight — we want to put the spotlight on the Good Samaritan clinic and the good work that they do in our community not just at thanksgiving, but all year long.”
Hutson noted that December is typically one of the clinic’s most active months for taking in local financial donations — a function, no doubt, of many givers’ end-of-year contributions to close out the annual tax season.
“We have monetary donors,” she said, “but we also have volunteers and people who donate their services in kind. We welcome and are grateful for all of it. It takes all of us to keep a big operation like our going. and of course, if you are looking for a charitable organization at the end of the year to give to, we would love nothing more than for you to choose the Good Samaritan clinic.”
To learn more about the Good Samaritan Health Clinic and its local mission, visit the nonprofit’s website at goodsamaritancullman.com.