Mobile health clinic in Highland Park to lose funding due to DOGE cuts

The New Jersey Department of Health said the program is losing its $20,000 per month grant.

Chris Keating

Apr 1, 2025, 9:21 PM

Updated yesterday

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President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has claimed another victim in New Jersey. This time, the federal agency has taken aim at a mobile health clinic run out of a church in Highland Park.
The Global Grace Mobile Clinic is run by Dr. Norma Bowe. The clinic was given a stop-work order and was told that its funding had been cut off.
On Tuesday, Bowe and her four-person team took the RV to tend to a group of homeless men who live under a train bridge in New Brunswick. The team was checking blood pressure and performing diabetes tests while handing out paper bags with essentials.
“We always have socks, water, toothpaste, granola bars,” says Bowe. “Just a little human dignity when you have to live under a bridge.”
The team was also focused on a man whose life they recently saved when he was found in a diabetic coma.
“He spent some time in the hospital on an IV insulin drip,” Bowe says. “They released him with no medication and no follow-up.”
However, the work performed by this mobile clinic, now in operation for four years, will have to end and the team will have to park the RV for good following the order from the New Jersey Department of Health.
The NJDOH said the program is losing its $20,000 per month grant.
An email stating it’s a decision from the Trump Administration, explaining, “Any expenses incurred beyond March 28, 2025 will be at your own risk, as NJDOH may not be able to reimburse any costs moving forward.”
Two of the community health workers losing their jobs from this decision are Sarat Busari and Andrea Mesa.
“I love this work. I love doing it. It saddens me it’s going to end,” says Busari.
Mesa worked with the mobile clinic while working toward a PhD in behavioral health.
“When we are out there we really feel we are making a difference, making a social impact, which is really meaningful for me,” she says.
Bowe says that the clinic started four years ago with COVID-19 vaccines, then flu vaccines and then moved into general medical care.
She says they've been incredibly successful, but if they don’t find funding to keep the word up, she fears there will be consequences.
“People will die, people are going to die,” Bowe says.
Bowe says they can stay afloat for the next five weeks but after that, there’ll be no more money. The program is actively searching for funding. Click here to donate.