Community Health and Hunger Program – Capacity Building Grant Awardees
Good Shepherd Food Bank is pleased to announce grantees from the Food Bank’s first round of Capacity Building Grants awarded to their Community Health and Hunger Program partners. These grants are intended to support partners looking to increase their capacity to serve their local communities by increasing the amount of healthy food they can distribute and the number of individuals helped through their programs.
Among the awards, here are two highlighted projects.
Fish River Rural Health: Fish River Rural Health is a federally qualified health center located in the St. John Valley of Aroostook County. They have three locations (Eagle Lake, Madawaska, and Fort Kent) and partner with Good Shepherd Food Bank to distribute nutritious food to patients and their families at all three locations. Funding from this grant will provide equipment such as glass front refrigeration and open shelves, supporting nutrition literacy for patients and allowing staff to integrate additional chronic disease management tools into their interactions with food-insecure patients. Fish River distributed over 45,000 pounds of nutritious food to patients in 2021 through their food shelves, and we are excited to support their efforts in 2022.
Southern Maine Healthcare (SMHC): Southern Maine Health began partnering with Good Shepherd Food Bank in 2019, starting with emergency food bags at their pediatric offices and quickly expanding to serve patients being discharged from the Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford. In 2021, SMHC launched a pilot to screen patients within the emergency departments at Southern Maine Medical Center locations in Biddeford and Sanford. Funding from this grant will support this initiative and expand the distribution of fresh produce at both locations through an innovative produce prescription program in their Biddeford location.
Award List:
Community Health and Wellness, Pen Bay Medical Center
Community Health and Wellness, Waldo County General Hospital
Northern Light Health Foundation
Grant awards of up to $25,000 were available. For more information on the Capacity Building Grant process, please visit www.FeedingMaine.org/partner-agency/#cbg.