Our History

In 2013, Guilford County citizens received two pieces of bad news: the North Carolina General Assembly voted not to expand Medicaid, leaving tens of thousands across the state with no insurance coverage. At the same time Greensboro’s HealthServe Community Care Clinic closed, leaving more than 8,500 patients from low-income households with no access to quality healthcare. Dr. Beth Mulberry, who had worked at HealthServe, and Kevin Devine, a community advocate for equal access for healthcare, began exploring the possibility of opening a clinic that would not just respond to health emergencies but would help get at the problems that were making and keeping people sick. 

Neighborhood Partnership 

East Greensboro’s Cottage Grove neighborhood was the perfect fit. The New Hope Community Development Group, a project of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, was already working with neighborhood residents on everything from job readiness to a community garden and had long hoped to see a health center in the neighborhood. In 2013 Mustard Seed set up a clinic one day a week on Simpson Street while planning with New Hope to open a health center in the former parsonage next door. By 2016, the clinic moved into its current space at South English Street and began offering services five days a week. 

Mustard Seed partners with New Hope Community Development Group, Greensboro Housing Coalition, and Cottage Grove neighbors to improve community health outcomes. Our partnership, known as Collaborative Cottage Grove focuses on asthma, diabetes, and hypertension - chronic diseases that can be addressed through housing, fresh food, infrastructure for physical activity, and community engagement. Our partnership was profiled nationally in December 2018 on PBS’s NewsHour. 

And today, thanks to the Guilford Community Care Network, patients from any Guilford County neighborhood who are uninsured/underinsured can achieve their health goals in Mustard Seed’s care. 

Learn more about Mustard Seed’s History from some of the people who made this clinic happen: