The Rockefeller Foundation has awarded a $600,000 grant to Harvard's newly created Center for Community Health and Medical Care.

The center will develop programs to improve the delivery of medical care to Americans in the cities, in the suburbs and on the farms.

In a joint statement, Dr. Robert H. Ebert, dean of the Medical School, and Dr. John C. Snyder, dean of the School of Public Health, said yesterday that the Rockefeller grant was the first part of the money needed to finance the center's anticipated annual budget of $1.8 million.

The Medical School will seek the additional funds from "other private organizations and from local and federal government sources," Ebert said.

Herbert A. Shaw, Director of Medical Information, said the grant represented only a small portion of the $1.8 million but added that the school did not expect any difficulties raising the money.

The announcement of the grant and funding of the center comes at a time when medical schools are expecting large reductions in federal grants because of the Vietnam war.

The Rockefeller grant will be made available in three annual allocations of $200,000 each and is ear-marked for center salaries, research, training, and travel expenses.

Paul M. Densen, currently deputy administrator of New York City's Health Services Administration, will direct the center, which is the first of its kind. Densen will become Professor of Community Health at Harvard on July 1.

Plans for the Center's programs include new fellowships in medicine and public health, evaluation of existing medical programs in Cambridge and Boston, and research in such fields as early diagnosis of disease in the schools, Densen said.