WORCESTER, Mass. - Several local organizations and UMass Chan Medical School provided free, essential health services to people in Worcester on Wednesday.

The community health fair was hosted at the public library. Volunteers and first-year medical students provided people with educational materials, blood pressure screenings and community resources on everything from fitness to food insecurity.  

"I want people to learn about the different opportunities that are available and the different support systems that are here to help them, depending on what their needs are” Mariane St. Juste, a first-year medical student, said. “We work with newly arriving families, refugee families. There are some helping with refugee children."

"I think a lot of the times there is a lot of resources out there that seem out of reach or inaccessible for a lot of the patients we work with,” Jonathan Ayash, another first-year medical student, said. “Often times you need that first step in to get that sort of network available to you and this could be that first step in, that first entrance to be able to help all of these people."

The medical school students said it's nice to be working with people and using their education in real time.