BANGOR — To support healthy individuals and families and promote vitality in the community, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, in partnership with Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine, opened a Community Cupboard in April. With a $21,300 grant from the Food Bank, as well as donations from staff, the medical center built and stocked the pantry space.
“We’re so grateful for our partnership with Good Shepherd Food Bank,” says Stacey Coventry, director, community engagement, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center. “The Food Bank not only helps provide food at a reduced cost, they also train our volunteers on safe food handling practices for our pantry. This wonderful support helps us sustain this important effort to help feed and care for our community.”
Since opening, individuals have taken home 463 bags and boxes of food from the Community Cupboard at the medical center, exceeding expectations. Conventry continues, “As the cost of household expenses rises, so does food insecurity in Maine. It’s our mission to care for our community, and one way we can provide support is by sending any person home with healthy food to meet their immediate needs.”
To restock the shelves in the Community Cupboard, the medical center is asking the community for donations of:
- Non-perishable food, delivered to the State Street Campus
- Funds to help stock the pantry. Individuals may visit northernlighthealth.org/GiveEMMC and give monetary donations by choosing “Food Insecurity Program” in the dropdown menu.
- Time. Those interested in volunteering to sort and stock food in the pantry or driving to pick up food at Good Shepherd Food Bank’s distribution center in Hampden may begin the process of becoming a volunteer by visiting northernlighthealth.org/EMMCVolunteer.
In addition to the Community Cupboard supporting inpatient care areas, across the health system, food insecurity screenings are in place in primary care and specialty practices, an effort that began in 2017. Since January, Northern Light Health outpatient care teams have shared 2,865 bags of food with patients and more than 1,812 bags of sustainable basics were distributed to patients at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center alone. Pantries set up at Northern Light Acadia Hospital in Bangor and Northern Light Cancer Care in Brewer are also supporting patients and families in need.
To stay on track and ensure efforts to improve community health are on target, every three years, Northern Light Health partners with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Maine Community Action Agencies, and other health systems across the state in a Community Health Needs Assessment. The 2022 results uncovered that social determinants of health such as high levels of poverty and food insecurity were a true concern. In response, patient food insecurity screening efforts continue to expand throughout Northern Light Health to help identify families in need in real time. Northern Light Health will be participating in a new Community Health Needs Assessment scheduled this fall.
