FARMINGTON — Franklin Memorial Hospital held an open house for its new food pantry at the Greenwood Center on Thursday, November 3rd.
The hospital’s chief operating officer, Barbara Sergio, said the aim of the move was to bring the food pantry closer to the hospital and make it more accessible to both clients and staff. That was our first thought. To move closer to the site and make better use of the space,” she said.
A food pantry with healthy options is accessible to staff and patients referred through food insecurity screenings. Beginning with pediatric practices, FMH expanded the program to include adult home practice and provided emergency food bags.
According to the Director of the Healthy Communities Coalition [HCC] LeeAnn Lavoie said: We have opened a food pantry for our patients. It’s not just a food pantry, it’s healthy food. ”
Formerly located in the Wilton Road office, the pantry is Maine’s first hospital-based food pantry and features a client-choice model that allows clients to “shop” for items instead of picking them up. is.
Erica Ingrisano, HCC Program Coordinator and Pantry Manager, believes this model will help reduce waste and change people’s perceptions of food pantries. “We’re trying to remove the stigma from being a pantry,” she pointed out.
The pantry is donated by the Good Shepherd Food Bank, along with local farms like Rustic Root Farm in Farmington, Berry Fruit Farm in Livermore Falls and Emery Farm in Wayne. The pantry also draws on food grown at Hope Harvest Gardens, a volunteer-based vegetable garden on the hospital campus.
The hospital worked with Herbert Construction, who renovated the space to make it more suitable for a food pantry. The project took about three months to complete, said Tim Mancine, his manager.
“We removed some walls to make the space bigger and more open, as you can see now,” says Mancine. “We added new interior walls, new doors, new finishes, new flooring, relocated sprinklers, new LED lighting, etc. where needed.”
Mancine also credited the contributions of subcontractors IEC Electrical, Mason Mechanical, Royal Flooring and Central Maine Drywall. “I take pride in my work [Scott Day, Superintendent of Herbert Construction] We have other subcontractors doing it and I think it turned out really nice,” he commented.
Herbert Construction donated $5,000 to the Coalition for Healthy Communities in honor of the day.
FMH plans to host more classes at the location to teach customers how to prepare healthier meals. “We have a classroom where we can teach people how to cook the food we get here, which is really cool,” he says.
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