A Thanksgiving Message of Gratitude to the Heart of Community Health

This year marks an especially meaningful landmark that we'd like to acknowledge. 2025 marks 60 years since the very first Community Health Centers were founded in 1965, launched as a demonstration project under President Lyndon Johnson’s Office of Economic Opportunity during the War on Poverty.

What began as two small Neighborhood Health Centers—one in Boston and one in Mississippi—has grown into a national movement that serves over 30 million people today. That legacy didn’t happen by accident. It happened because people like you chose compassion, equity, and action—every single day.

Today, the OroMed team wants to say something simple but deeply felt: thank you.

Community Health Gratitude: Honoring 60 Years of Service

This season, we would like to highlight a very special sentiment: community health gratitude. For six decades, Community Health Centers (CHCs) have stood as pillars of access and dignity for the least served among us. And the heartbeat of that mission has always been the individuals who show up, day after day.

Front Desk & Administrative Teams

You greet every patient with dignity. You manage the schedules, the questions, the chaos, and the compassion. You make care possible before a clinician ever steps into the room.

Medical Assistants, Nurses & Clinical Support Staff

You are the steady hands and steady voices in every visit. You carry enormous workloads and still treat every patient with humanity.

Providers & Clinicians

You serve people who often have no other door to walk through. You heal, you guide, and you advocate. Your commitment changes lives and sometimes saves them.

Oral Health and Preventive Care Teams

You ensure the mouth isn’t forgotten in whole-person health. Whether in a full dental clinic or through integrated preventive exams, your work prevents crisis and promotes early detection.

Care Coordinators & Social Support Services

You connect people to housing, food, transportation, medications, and stability. You bridge the gap between medical care and real life.

Health Center Leadership

You steer CHCs through tight budgets, workforce shortages, and rising community needs, without losing sight of your mission or your people.

You are the reason the CHC movement still stands strong 60 years later.

A Season to Rest, Reflect, and Celebrate

This anniversary year reminds us of everything CHCs have made possible:

• Access for millions historically marginalized from healthcare

• Reduced disparities in rural and underserved communities

• Preventive care delivered where it’s needed most

• Partnerships that strengthen community resilience

Your work is the continuation of a movement born from justice and equity in 1965. And this Thanksgiving, you deserve a moment of rest, a moment to recognize the impact you’ve had on patients, families, and entire neighborhoods.

Gratitude Today, Partnership Tomorrow

At OroMed, we are honored to partner with CHCs in this milestone year. Our mission, to integrate oral health seamlessly into medical care, exists because we believe in your mission: prevention, access, equity, and whole-person care. Your dedication inspires us and fuels healthier futures for every patient you serve. Thank you for continuing a 60-year legacy of community health, dignity, and service.

From all of us at OroMed: Happy Thanksgiving. May your holiday be restful, warm, and filled with love.