AUGUSTA — MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Peter Alfond Prevention & Healthy Living Center has been awarded a one-year, $25,000 grant from the Avangrid Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Central Maine Power’s parent company Avangrid.

The grant supports the center’s Community Health and Hunger Program and its healthy cooking and eating classes.

The foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization that funds philanthropic investments that primarily impact communities where Avangrid and its subsidiaries operate. Since 2001, the foundation and its predecessors have invested more than $42.4 million in partnerships that focus on building sustainable, vital, and healthy communities; preserving cultural and artistic heritage; advancing education; and improving people’s lives, according to a news release from Joy McKenna with MaineGeneral Health.

The grant provides the opportunity to purchase and distribute emergency food bags for patients attending medical appointments who are food insecure. It also allows the staff to use its mobile teaching kitchen to go out into the community to host free healthy cooking and eating classes.

“As a community health system we recognize that health and hunger are deeply connected. With this funding, we can help our patients and community members understand this connection as we work to reduce hunger and enhance the overall health of residents in the Kennebec Valley,” said Anne Conners, director of Community Health at MaineGeneral Health.

The funds will support the purchase and distribution of emergency food bags purchased from Good Shepherd Food Bank and healthy cooking and eating classes delivered by our highly experienced team.

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