OCEANSIDE — A mobile clinic operated by the nonprofit TrueCare has rolled into North County to provide free medical and dental care, and its first stop was the Brother Benno’s Center in Oceanside to help homeless people facing health challenges.
“This is so exciting,” Brother Benno Foundation community outreach coordinator Dennis Pinnick said as he stood outside the mobile clinic Monday. “This is something our founder Harold Kutler wanted for many years.”
Brother Benno’s began as a soup kitchen in the early 1980s and since 1991 has been at 3260 Production Ave. in a building once owned by Kutler, who died in 2017. It provides meals, clothes, a recovery program and other services for homeless people, but had not offered medical care until the mobile clinic debuted at the site on Oct. 31.
Inside the 36-foot-long vehicle, Dr. Jorge Otañez and two medical assistants examined several patients, drawing blood, prescribing medications and referring people to labs if they need x-rays or additional care…read more