It’s Thank you Thursday and today’s shout out of Mission Love goes to Healthy Acadia.
Search the Mission’s blog for Healthy Acadia mentions. You will see quickly how Maine Seacoast Mission’s many partnerships with HA touch our services and programs on land and sea in Washington and Hancock Counties, from help distributing food to local pantries, to hosting island telehealth smoking cessation programs.
Based in both Ellsworth and Machias, HA’s mission is to help build healthy communities through empowering people and organizations Downeast. In the broad sense of the term, Healthy Acadia’s helps people lead healthy lives.
We remember last summer, long before Covid-19, the delicious Downeast Table of Plenty spaghetti supper with salads and vegetable stir fried dishes prepared and served by teens and staff from HA’s Teen Ag Summer Program. Teen Ag is a wonderful program that introduces healthy foods to teens, and shows them how to grow healthy foods and prepare them for healthy eating.
HA is also a valued participant among 20 or so health care providers at the Mission hosted Health Fairs, where islanders are offered free hearing tests by an audiologist, blood sugar checks, information on breast self exam, hospice, domestic violence and home health care.
As the Mission looks forward to continuing our healthy partnerships with Healthy Acadia, we invite you to visit HA on their website or on Facebook.
This is what community looks like.
On the web: https://healthyacadia.org/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealthyAcadia/
CHERRYFIELD, ME — Maine Seacoast Mission’s modified EdGE Summer Camp is well underway in Cherryfield. Our number one priority is keeping the children, families, and staff healthy and safe. At the same time, our camp goers are learning or polishing skills, such as how to visualize and capture great digital photographs.
BAR HARBOR, ME — Congratulations Class of 2020 students and best wishes for high school!
Journey Program Coordinator Briana West ended the academic year with heart and spirit, delivering Graduations in a Box to our 2020 8th grade Journey graduates. Bri used this project to catch up with her students in person for the first time since schools shifted to remote learning as a Covid-19 precaution. The students loved their creatively decorated boxes that included leather journals, sweet treats and other celebratory bits!
Bri said she is looking forward to follow-up meetings, albeit physically distanced, with her students this summer.
Journey is a six-year youth mentoring program. Made possible by the Lerner Foundation and its mentoring-based initiative, Aspirations Incubator, Journey is designed to raise/sustain aspirations of rural Maine middle and high school students.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact – Scott K Fish, Communications and Marketing sfish@seacoastmission.org or 207-458-7185
CHERRYFIELD, ME — When Maine Seacoast Mission Director of Service Programs Wendy Harrington read the news about Covid-19 restrictions in March 2020, she knew it meant big changes for the Mission’s food programs Downeast. She also knew the Mission has helped communities through crises for as long as it’s been around. This latest crisis would be a chance for the Mission to help and to grow.
Months earlier, the Mission had started bringing together all its food security programs within a Family Food Center that would make it easy for families to access education, food, community, and resource support in one place. The food pantry, Downeast Table of Plenty (DETOP), Weald Bethel garden, and child/senior hunger programs would be part of an integrated continuum of services supporting family resiliency.
Covid-19 precautions caused a spike in the number of people turning to the Mission food pantry for help. Wendy Harrington said, “To meet the need, we recruited staff from other Mission programs which were on hold because of Covid-19.” Mission staff, including EdGE instructors, and volunteers stepped up to fill the need at the pantry.
Before, customers shopped at the Mission food pantry as they would any food market. As a coronavirus defense, the pantry doors were closed to the public. Instead, customers are now served by a new drive-through system. It includes an online food order form and the ability to call in food orders to Mission staff. Customers place their orders; volunteers and staff box them up and then place the boxes in cars as customers move along the drive-through.
The Mission also increased food deliveries to people unable to get to the food pantry, or who relied on meals served at the DETOP suppers.
As more and more people lost wages, experienced layoffs, and relied on the food pantry for daily sustenance, long-time Mission food pantry partners became even more important. Good Shepherd Food Bank, Shaw’s and Walmart in Ellsworth and government programs and private donors either provided funds to buy more food, or increased the variety and amounts of donated produce, meats, and dairy products.
The Mission’s food distribution partnership with nonprofit Mano en Mano in Milbridge also grew. The Mission worked with Mano en Mano staff to acquire and offer food staples to over 150 Latinx family households. An initial donation from McKays Public House in Bar Harbor, followed by a grant from Good Shepherd Food Bank, helped make this happen.
The Mission food pantry also teamed with Folklore Farm in Milbridge to provide local produce. Intervale Farm in Cherryfield offered dormant blueberry freezers to accommodate a large donation of fresh meats for the pantry. As a new Family Food Center initiative, also in tandem with local farmers, the Mission built and distributed 40 Gardens-in-a-Box, and 150 tomato plants in containers to local families.
The Mission Family Food Center is well underway and embracing new opportunities to strengthen community. We encourage you to watch and share our new video short depicting our work with our emerging Family Food Center programs.
Learn more about Maine Seacoast Mission’s food security programs.
Terri Rodick’s car decked out to deliver “Graduation in a Box.”
“Graduation in a Box”
BAR HARBOR, ME — We welcome 20 new Mission Scholars this year! “The scholarship amounts range from $1,500 to $5,000, totaling $67,000 in new scholarships, and $104,000 in renewed scholarships to Hancock and Washington County students,” said Mission Scholarships Director Terri Rodick.
This year’s application season saw many changes as we adjusted the program to adapt to Covid-19 restrictions.
“This year we did all our interviews on Zoom,” Terri explained. Even though there were some issues with internet connectivity, still, she said, “I felt Zoom was a great way to meet the applicants. It allowed our sheltering at home Board of Directors and Scholarship Committee to participate in a meaningful, thoughtful way. The student applicants were already studying online this spring. Their availability and flexibility made scheduling time to meet with them much easier,” Terri said.
Also, because the Class of 2020 missed out on their normal graduation ceremonies, for each Mission Scholarship recipient Terri put together a “Graduation in a Box.” Scholarship grads within driving distance were treated to Terri (standing in their driveways, wearing a mask at a safe distance!) presenting them each with a congratulatory box of surprises and accolades. Boxes were mailed to 2020 grads outside Terri’s driving range.
Congratulations to all! They join a 100+ year Mission scholarship tradition.
Maine Seacoast Mission New Scholarship Recipients for 2020
Screenshot of recent Zoom conference among Island Elder Care group. (Not part of original USDA press release).
Students and Healthcare Services on Maine’s Island Communities Stay Connected
Posted by Timothy P. Hobbs, USDA Rural Development State Director for Maine in Rural Technology
Jun 19, 2020
Maine’s island communities are scattered up and down the coastline, many of them miles out to sea – they’re rural communities carving out a life both in and on the Atlantic Ocean. Despite the distance from the mainland, the educators and healthcare workers in this remote area of the state are dedicated to providing the critical services our island residents depend on and have adapted to the necessary changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the elements of this adaptation has been through the use of telecommunications, and as State Director of USDA Rural Development in Maine, I’m happy our agency has been able to serve as a key partner in bringing this technology to our rural island communities.
Telemedicine…depends on quality broadband connections to provide support to our island communities. For example, Sharon Daley is the nurse for the Maine Seacoast Mission, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of life and wellbeing for residents in Maine’s coastal and island communities. Sharon recently organized a videoconference for residents on the Cranberry Isles, hosting Barbara MacPike, an infectious disease specialist from Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor. Barbara shared current information about COVID-19 and residents were able to ask questions about coronavirus, and get answers to their concerns.
