As usual, dozens of men and women were lining up at Galloway United Methodist Church’s soup kitchen last Thursday morning, but most were hungry for more than food.

About an hour later, many in this mostly homeless group had filled up on a serving of red beans and rice, as well as a plateful of free information about the state of their health.

“I’ve got high blood pressure, and it’s a struggle to go to the doctor, to get the money to go,” said Noel Anderson Rhodes, a volunteer at Grace Place, Galloway’s morning shelter. 

“So this is good for the people who come to Grace Place. There’s usually nobody looking out for them. They usually have to look out for themselves.”

Watching out for them on this particular day were a group of first-year medical students and other Medical Center participants in UMMC’s Community Health Advocate (CHA) program, a plan to spread the gospel of healthy habits across the state – particularly to people with low incomes.

At Galloway, stations were set up near the Grace Place dining area, where students took blood-pressure and Body Mass Index readings and measured blood-glucose levels for about 60 of the Grace Place guests.

In his historic first speech as president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, Dr. Claude Brunson confronted the issue of health-care access - or lack of it - for many in the rural state.

Elected to serve as the association's first African-American leader in August, he has made access one of his top priorities while helming the 4,700-member statewide organization comprised of physicians and medical students.

Not too many things get by Virginia Covington, educational administrator in the School of Medicine’s Office of Student Affairs.

But, somehow, on Tuesday, scores of cunning medical students slipped past her with a dozen pink roses, sandwiches, cupcakes, balloons and a cake on fire.

All this, and more, awaited her when she entered the lower amphitheater on a make-believe mission cooked up by her boss, Dr. Jerry Clark.

“Happy birthday,” some 200 voices roared, and Covington knew that, after working here for nearly two decades, she’d finally been had.

 “I don’t know what to say,” she said, once fourth-year student Kevin Randolph had parked a birthday hat on her head. “Usually, I know everything.”

After extinguishing the letter-shaped candles spelling out “Happy Birthday,” Covington said, “I’m glad they didn’t have all the candles. Even I don’t have enough hot air to blow that out.”

Covington, who turned 60, has spent about a third of her years helping students get through medical school and, at times, life.

“She has served as surrogate mom for a generation,” said Clark, the school’s chief student affairs officer and associate dean for student affairs.

In November, she’ll celebrate her 20^th anniversary here in a role she took following various jobs at what was then called the Employment Security Commission, Milwaukee Tool and a General Electric plant.

“I had worked at one time as a cashier at the Sunflower in Maywood Mart,” Covington said. One of her customers was Dr. Lincoln Arceneaux, Clark’s predecessor in the Office of Student Affairs.

The Medical Center is proud to announce the following additions to its faculty and leadership staff: