(JEFFERSON, Ga. July 18, 2018)—The Good Samaritan Health Center of Gwinnett was awarded a $5,000 grant through a nomination by Jackson EMC to the CoBank Sharing Success Program. The grant will assist the Norcross-based nonprofit with purchasing dental instruments for its Smiles Under Construction program, which provides affordable, high-quality dental solutions for patients who are economically challenged.

“We are so grateful to Jackson EMC and CoBank for this grant,” said Greg Lang, the Center’s executive director. “With more surgical instruments on hand, we can keep duplicate surgical tools in rotation while used instruments cycle through sterilization and packaging for reuse. By eliminating the sterilization wait time of 45 minutes per cycle to complete, we can use the additional instruments to serve more patients each day.”

The Center operates the only full-time charity dental practice serving uninsured patients in the second largest county in Georgia, which has a population of more than 920,000.

In 2017, Jackson EMC provided the Good Samaritan Clinic with a $20,000 grant. The Jackson EMC grant made Good Samaritan eligible for a nomination to the CoBank Sharing Success program. The program matches contributions — up to $5,000 —made by its cooperative members, which includes Jackson EMC.

CoBank is a national cooperative bank serving industries and utilities in rural areas of all 50 states. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers.

The Good Samaritan Health Center is a nonprofit organization that provides quality, affordable primary health care, dental services and counseling in Norcross, Ga.

Jackson Electric Membership Corporation, the largest electric cooperative in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation, is headquartered 50 miles northeast of Atlanta in Jefferson, Ga. The cooperative serves more than 227,000 meters on 14,000 miles of energized wire. For more information, visit jacksonemc.com.