We drove with Reverend Jim through miles of soy bean and corn fields from the United Methodist church in Princeton, Illinois, where he’s been a pastor for the last 13 years, to the free medical clinic where he volunteers every Tuesday in Depue, about 10 miles away.

There was industry here once, he said. Factories, good jobs, people making a living wage. What remains in Depue today are one of the country’s largest toxic waste sites and low-paying jobs without health insurance, a need the Bureau County Health & Wellness Clinic tries to fill.

The small space that houses the clinic, an unused area donated by the town’s bank, is comprised of a small waiting room, a smaller examining room, and a dinosaur of a copy machine (they’ve got a new one on the wish list… this one leaves black streaks on the copies, says the pastor).

But the people in Depue who visit the clinic don’t come for modern décor or top of the line equipment. They come to see the local doctors who volunteer time so they can get basic care that would otherwise be unattainable.

The clinic struggles too, though. An ever-growing case load of patients trying to manage chronic illnesses keeps clinic staff on a constant search to find all of the necessary medications.

Said Reverend Jim: “Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart ailments, arthritis, and asthma are all problems that demand maintenance medication, which is increasingly difficult to procure. Clinics such as ours no longer receive much in the way of medicine donations from drug companies, and the cost of purchasing drugs is a huge burden for a free clinic such as ours. It is very sad to be forced to turn people away who genuinely need medication because we can no longer obtain that medicine for our formulary. These are not numbers or statistics--they are real people trying to care for themselves and their families, willing to work, just needing access to necessary medication."

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