{"id":5116,"date":"2026-08-05T11:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5116"},"modified":"2026-08-05T11:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:47:24","slug":"free-fest-brings-health-wellness-resources-to-philadelphia-community-for-third-straight-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5116","title":{"rendered":"Free Fest brings health, wellness resources to Philadelphia community for third straight year"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>&lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5110&quot; title=&quot;3rd International Conference on Pediatrics and Child <a href=\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5107\" title=\"The Complexities of Governing Mental Health AI | Stanford HAI\">Health<\/a>&#8220;&gt;Health<\/a> &amp; Fitness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Free Fest brings health, <a href=\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=5097\" title=\"ESL Commits $2M to Newark Health and Wellness Campus\">wellness<\/a> resources to Philadelphia community for third straight year<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/15613913_wpvi_bio_beccahhendrickson_160x200.jpg\" alt=\"Beccah Hendrickson Image\"><br \/>\nByBeccah Hendrickson<br \/>\nSaturday, August 1, 2026 10:21PM<\/p>\n<p>PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) &#8211;Free health screenings, books, produce, and family activities were offered to community members during Free Fest, a health and wellness event held for the third consecutive year at the Navy Yard<\/p>\n<p>The event, organized by Philly Freeway, focused on connecting residents with free re<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To be able to bring free books, free produce, free blood pressure tests. We need these types of reg to do here,&#8221; said Melissa Young, a producer for Free Fest<\/p>\n<p>Young said the event reflects the mission of Philly Freeway and its founder<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a rapper, community leader, philanthropist, and kidney recipient, it&#8217;s really important to bring these rey,&#8221; Young said<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers also helped coordinate activities for children and families. Among them was author John Butler, who goes by Cousin John and served as curator of the Children&#8217;s Village<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Summers for parents can be expensive, so being able to have this event that&#8217;s free and caters to the family where there&#8217;s literally something for everybody,&#8221; Butler said<\/p>\n<p>Attendees explored a variety of ree people could speak with a licensed therapist at no cost<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s important for us to remove as many barriers as possible for people to have access to therapy,&#8221; said Natalie Dallard of Community Behavioral Health<\/p>\n<p>Dallard said the service is especially important as many people struggle with social isolation<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are in what&#8217;s called a loneliness epidemic; we hear about how people feel socially isolated, and they feel intimidated and that the traditional ways of doing things aren&#8217;t working,&#8221; she said<\/p>\n<p>Organizers also emphasized healthy eating by partnering with Sharing Excess to distribute free produce to community members<\/p>\n<p>Butler said the event offered families another opportunity to connect and learn together<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really an opportunity for families to get out, enjoy some great activities, focus on literacy,&#8221; he said<\/p>\n<p>Free Fest was held at the Navy Yard and marked its third year of bringing free health, wellness and community re<\/p>\n<p>Report a correction or typo<br \/>\nCopyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n<h2>Related Topics<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) &#8211;Free health screenings, books, produce, and family activities were offered to community members during Free Fest, a health and wellness event held for the third consecutive year at the Navy Yard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[700,699,111,40,131],"class_list":["post-5116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-family-wellness","tag-brings","tag-fest","tag-free","tag-health","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5118,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5116\/revisions\/5118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}