<em><strong>When Liz Villarreal-Rowe, 55, and Jillian Sander, 18, heard about a plan for a free health clinic in their Ohio community, they worked together to help get funds for supplies and medicine.</strong></em>

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Liz Villarreal-Rowe&nbsp;had&nbsp;the&nbsp;connection with&nbsp;the&nbsp;doctors.&nbsp;Jillian Sander&nbsp;knew the medical students.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Together, they joined forces –&nbsp;a&nbsp;store manager and&nbsp;a&nbsp;barista at a Starbucks in Maumee, Ohio – to write a grant proposal to help get money for a&nbsp;free&nbsp;neighborhood&nbsp;health&nbsp;clinic put on by the University of Toledo&nbsp;(UT) Medical&nbsp;School.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Liz, 55, the manager, has been going on&nbsp;annual&nbsp;medical missions to her native Guatemala for&nbsp;the last 16&nbsp;years.&nbsp;She’s&nbsp;the logistics manager, working with&nbsp;a&nbsp;university&nbsp;doctor who rounds up volunteers and leads the trip.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Jillian, 18, the barista, is a pre-veterinary student at UT. She&nbsp;befriended&nbsp;a group of regular customers –&nbsp;medical students&nbsp;–&nbsp;who&nbsp;often&nbsp;studied late into the night at&nbsp;her&nbsp;Starbucks.&nbsp;Inspired by their hard work, she teamed up with them for several years to donate and deliver food to clinics in the area. &nbsp;&nbsp;

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When the&nbsp;COVID-19 pandemic hit,&nbsp;the university’s medical school, including some of those same doctors and students, helped launch&nbsp;a&nbsp;free&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.utoledo.edu/med/studentaffairs/organizations/ccc.html" target="_blank">CommunityCares&nbsp;Clinic</a>&nbsp;to help&nbsp;vulnerable people: those&nbsp;experiencing homelessness&nbsp;in&nbsp;downtown&nbsp;Toledo,&nbsp;people without&nbsp;insurance&nbsp;and migrant farming families in&nbsp;nearby&nbsp;rural&nbsp;communities. But they needed funds to buy&nbsp;supplies and medication.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Liz and Jillian heard about the&nbsp;clinic&nbsp;and&nbsp;nominated the organization&nbsp;for a Neighborhood Grant from The Starbucks Foundation. The grant, <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2020/the-starbucks-foundation-selects-more-than-400-non-profits-in-latest-round-of-neighborhood-grants/">awarded to nonprofits supporting the COVID-19 response</a>, helped&nbsp;the clinic buy&nbsp;personal protective equipment, medicine and other supplies.

“You heard all these stories of people that didn’t have the means to go to the hospital, or hospitals that were being overwhelmed,” Liz says. “We cannot personally go, but we can help in this way.”&nbsp;

For Liz,&nbsp;staying open for a community with a hospital was important. They were able to provide doctors, nurses and other essential workers with coffee every day. For weeks, she and her team donated take-out containers of coffee to the hospital. It also gave her a chance to mentor her team through a crisis.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“I know the opportunities I’ve had at Starbucks are invaluable,” says Liz,&nbsp;who’s&nbsp;been a store manager for seven years and has worked on dozens of community engagement projects. “For me, as a person, a professional, a mentor, I feel the need to share that wealth with everybody else. One of the ways to do it to help others grow, to pass the torch. I’m the oldest person in the store, so I like to bring along the kids and teach them.&nbsp;

“During the holidays, a lot of people share these positive feelings of joy and peace, but it doesn’t have to be only during December. We are capable of sharing these feelings throughout the year.”

Message received. Jillian,&nbsp;who’s&nbsp;worked at Starbucks since she was 16, credits Liz for&nbsp;inspiring her to&nbsp;develop a more positive mindset.&nbsp;&nbsp;

“I definitely think I’ve learned over the last year to trust that things will work out, to try to make the situation around me better,” Jillian says. “All I can do is try and be positive on my end, and from there, keep the faith. It feels good to know that I’m not only making a customer connection, but I’m making a&nbsp;person-to-person&nbsp;connection, working together to do something for the community.”&nbsp;

When Liz and Jillian heard about a plan for a free health clinic in their Ohio community, they worked together to help get funds for supplies and medicine.

Starbucks manager and barista join forces to help get money for free health clinic

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When Liz Villarreal-Rowe, 55, and Jillian Sander, 18, heard about a plan for a free health clinic in their Ohio community, they worked together to help get funds for supplies and medicine.

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