Courtesy of We Care STL
As of 2020, roughly 10 percent of Missourians were still without health insurance. In August of 2020, Missouri joined 37 states and the District of Columbia in passing Medicaid expansion through ballot voting. Starting July 1, 2021, Missouri’s Medicaid program, MO HealthNet, will cover qualified medical expenses for residents who meet certain eligibility requirements, such as individuals and families with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
When St. Louis shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Vas Sahinidis thought of St. Louis’ underserved population and those families still without health insurance.
Where do they go?
For many, the region's free medical clinics are a haven. But who helps support those clinics? He landed on an idea: The 27-year-old would launch We Care STL, a nonprofit organization that raises funds and distributes care packages to free medical clinics in St. Louis that provide primary care, mental support, and domestic abuse services to those who don’t have health insurance.
With the help from Gus Harris, resident auditor at the Defense Contract Audit Agency, recent University of Missouri graduate Zaid Khashram, and Carlen Hite, a senior at Marquette High School, the team filed the nonprofit as a charitable organization under the Missouri Attorney General's office.
“[COVID-19] came out of nowhere and it ended up changing my lifestyle substantially,” Sahinidis says.
By the beginning of January, the team raised around $1,200 for their first round of donations. Recently, they dropped off 40 care packages to Vivent Health in St. Louis and 35 care packages to the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in St. Charles.
“It was nice to physically see [the packages] handed off to the volunteers at the Medicine Clinic,” says Hite. “It allowed me to actually see our hard work paying off.”
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Courtesy of We Care STL
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Courtesy of We Care STL
Each care package costs less than $7 to make and includes personal hand sanitizer, a first aid kit, a stress ball with a "We Care STL" logo, multivitamin juice powder, cough drops, and bags of tea, all assembled in a customized mailer box.
As the nonprofit organization prepares for their next donation, they have some new initiatives in the works. Two new campus ambassadors have joined the team: Kiran Depala, a student at Saint Louis University, and Ange Long a student at Washington University, will help with donations and social media management. The nonprofit also hopes to be approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt, charitable organization after applying for a 501(c)(3).
