By BECKY CRISSMAN

becky.crissman@cordeledispatch.com

VIENNA — Dooly County Healthcare recently partnered with Amerigroup and a local produce company to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to the citizens of Dooly Healthcare.

Atlanta based Amerigroup brought their Mobile Food Pantry/Farmer’s Market to Dooly County Healthcare Wednesday afternoon. Michael Hardrick, owner and operator of Hardrick Produce of Vienna provided the produce for the event.

“This is the first time we have come to Dooly County,” said Russell Guess of Amerigroup, who covers the central market including Dooly and Crisp Counties. “We hope to be able to do this at least once a quarter, around four times each year.”

Guess said the mobile food pantry is part of Amerigroup’s healthy eating initiative.

“We want to help provide better access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” he said.

Carolyn Maddox, Operations Manager for Dooly County Healthcare said they were pleased to be able to offer this service to the citizens of Dooly County. “We at DCHC are here to serve the people,” said Maddox. “Our primary focus is healthcare and one important aspect of healthcare is healthy eating. By participating in the mobile food pantry/farmer’s market with Amerigroup we are providing healthy, fresh fruits and vegetables that are not always readily accessible for some people.”

Despite Wednesday’s rainy weather a large number of people turned out to the event. Citizens were given the choice of a basket full of fruit such as apples, oranges, plums, bananas and other items or a bag with fresh cabbage, sweet potatoes, onions, peppers and other vegetables.

Amerigroup is one of three health plans for Medicaid. For more information about Amerigroup and the services they provide please log on to www.myamerigroup.com.