The name says it all: Houchin COMMUNITY Blood Bank.

Dedicated to serving the needs of the community, this nonprofit service has been around since the 1940s. Houchin is committed to being the sole provider of a safe and adequate blood supply in Kern County. The supply, of course, is driven through volunteer walk-in donations and community/company blood drives. Today Houchin has approximately 65 employees in two locations.

It was the collaboration of local physicians, local interest groups and community demands that led to a meeting inside the offices Doctors Coker, Crawley and Varney, which were the beginnings of the non-profit community blood bank. Due to the lack of blood supply in Kern County, blood was being delivered from Los Angeles and San Francisco but could not meet the urgent need. At this time Kern General Hospital, now known as Kern Medical Center, was the only equipped facility to draw and test blood.

In 1951, members of the Kern Medical Society called a meeting with Houchin, also a member of the group, to discuss a perminant location for a future community blood bank. This location is the current G Street facility. In memory of Sarah Alice Houchin, Houchin’s mother. Land and endowment funds were donated to start the blood bank, which opened its doors in April 1952.