Happy New Year from HCCA!

HCCA Winter Newsletter

January 2022

What's New at HCCA

Maine Farm to School Network Launches First Annual

Maine Farm to School Institute

Pictured above: Maine Farm to School Institute Planning Committee

After more than two years of grant writing, planning, and relationship-building, the Maine Farm to School Network (MFSN), housed at HCCA, is launching Maine’s first Farm to School Institute in 2022-2023. The institute is modeled after the Northeast Farm to School Institute in VT and is rolling out in partnership with UMaine School of Food and Agriculture and over 20 collaborating organizations and agencies.

MFSN at HCCA is coordinating Institute logistics with supporting partners and will be launching applications in January 2022 for Maine schools to apply. This inaugural Institute includes a year of support and a 3-day academy at The Ecology School to assist schools in developing a farm to school program for their school/district.

Learn more:

Maine Farm to School Institute Webpage
Press Release – Bangor Daily News
Press Release – Pen Bay Pilot
Contact Stephanie Cesario-DeBiasi, MFSN Coordinator at HCCA, at s.cesario@hccame.org with questions

This project is supported by the Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program grant 2021-70026-35911, the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, and the Onion Foundation.

2021

Let's Go! Regional Report

Southern Kennebec County

Let's Go! Champions at early care education programs, schools, out of school programs, school nutrition (cafeterias), and health care practices (5-2-1-0) respond to an annual survey about the 5-2-1-0 strategies they are practicing to engage children in healthy eating and active living. Here are the results for Southern Kennebec County:

To learn more about the impact of Let's Go! programs statewide, visit

2021 Impact webpage

NEW @ HCCA ~ Equity Action Committee

HCCA staff and board members formed an Equity Action Committee to develop an organizational equity action plan with long and short term goals starting in January 2022. The committee meets monthly and considers materials for social media communication, new projects, and grant applications available related to equity, inclusion, and diversity.

Nutrition and Physical Activity

Welcome to HCCA's New SNAP Educator

Courtney Whitney

Courtney Whitney is HCCA's new SNAP-Ed Nutrition Educator! Courtney works with community partners throughout Kennebec County to implement SNAP-Ed programming.

Courtney is a University of Maine at Farmington graduate and holds a degree in Community Health Education with a concentration in nutrition. Courtney has worked in several nonprofit organizations with a wide variety of community demographics, and is passionate about wellness education.

Courtney is a creative person who enjoys knitting, crocheting, and sewing in her spare time. She likes exhibiting at local craft fairs during the fall and winter months. Courtney also enjoys spending time with her husband and two animals.

Welcome Courtney - we are so happy to have you join our team!

New Year, New Favorite Salad

Adding a little sweetness to a salad can make all the difference!

Check out this new recipe video from HCCA's

SNAP-Ed Coordinator Rachael Reynolds

Broccoli and Raisin Salad

Stay Healthy ~ Stay Active

Outside this Winter

Looking for a place to go cross country skiing, sledding, or snow shoeing? Just click on the Kennebec County Physical Activity and Nutrition Resource Guide to find the town and a trail you want to visit. Explore the many trails located right here in Kennebec County and make it a healthy habit to get 1 hour or more of physical activity every day.

Maine Farm to Institution

Welcomes New Leadership Team

In October 2021, MEFTI welcomed eight new members to the network leadership! This stellar group of advocates, organizers, and practitioners includes farm managers, food service directors, vegetable processors, distributors, and seafood workers.

In the coming year, MEFTI leaders will be working on

statewide policy advocacy,
convening Maine food processors, and
advancing priorities developed through the 2020-2021 Maine Food Convergence.

Meet the MEFTI Leadership Team

Pictured above: Breakout groups from MEFTI convening Maine Food Processors Workgroup

Get Involved with MEFTI’s Work Groups:

Connect with MFSN Coordinator s.cesario@hccame.org to get involved with the Maine Food Processors Workgroup
Connect with Ken Morse kenmorse@mac.com to get involved with the Maine Food Policy Workgroup
For all other MEFTI inquiries, connect with MEFTI Coordinator, HCCA Executive Director Renee Page r.page@hccame.org

Tobacco Prevention

Kennebec County Hospitals

Receive Gold Star Recognition for

Tobacco Treatment and Prevention

Breathe Easy conducts the Gold Star Standards of Excellence recognition program annually to encourage and support addressing smoking and tobacco use by creating and maintaining smoke and tobacco-free policies.

HCCA works with local partners to help craft these policies and encourages organizations to apply for recognition once policies are in place.

We are so proud of our Kennebec County winners - including Riverview Psychiatric, who won for the first time this year!

Check out all the winners at

Breathe Easy

Quitting Tobacco As A New Year's Resolution?

We Can Help

Great first step - whether you smoke or not, make your home smoke-free!

Thinking about quitting?

Check out these resources!

Free, confidential text support for teens and young adults to quit vaping

Substance Abuse Prevention

Why Consider "Dry January" after 2021?

Since the start of the pandemic, sales of at-home alcohol spiked to nearly 27%. Although that doesn’t take into account shutdowns of bars and restaurants nationwide, it suggests people are turning to alcohol to cope with a life-altering crisis.

Alcohol has the potential to further complicate the COVID-19 pandemic in multiple ways. Alcohol misuse both activates the immune system, causing inflammation, and interferes with the body’s immune response to viral and bacterial infections. In the lungs, excessive alcohol damages epithelial cells that line the lung surface and is associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Ultimately, impaired immune system function and an increased susceptibility to respiratory illness can contribute to more severe COVID-19 and greater risk of mortality.

Here are some reasons to consider trying your own "Dry January"

You don’t like your relationship with alcohol
You want more energy
You’re raising money for a charity
You’re building up to a big event
You want to look better
You or your partner is pregnant or trying to become pregnant
Someone else has suggested you cut back
You have health concerns or your doctor has suggested a change
You’re training for a sporting event
You want to save money
Just because

Take the Dry January quiz: What type of drinker are you?
Take a look at the Dry January program, it offers many resources, including a free app to help you through the 31 days. Maybe challenge a friend to join you?

New Year's Resolution:

Try these Conversation Starters to eat, laugh, and talk at

Family Dinner time

Safe Storage over the Holidays

1-800-222-1222

Call poison control immediately

if your child exhibits the following symptoms:

Very drowsy
In severe cases, you may not be able to wake the child up
Trouble breathing

Children who swallow marijuana often need to be watched at a hospital to ensure their safety.

HCCA Community Connections

Partnership Spotlight:

HCCA Tobacco Team Partners with CANMP

Based in Augusta, the Capital Area New Mainers Project (also known as CANMP, pronounced "camp") embraces immigrants as New Mainers who bring much-needed diversity, energy, and vitality to our area.

These New Mainers face two main tobacco-related challenges: Many have a cultural tradition of using hookah, and many are adopting a new American behavior of using cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

HCCA learned of these concerns and partnered with CANMP to learn more and to create materials that addressed the community's unique needs.

We learned:

Mainly from Iran, Iraq, and Syria, these New Mainers need materials in English and Arabic to be able to connect with Maine’s free quitting resources
Culturally, most tobacco users are men, although Syrian women also smoke; Young people are more likely to smoke than vape, but the community wants to share information on both
Hookah is an important cultural tradition, but many don’t know the dangers of tobacco and secondhand smoke

Volunteers from CANMP, including a translator, a physician, and a community member partnered with HCCA to create flyers to distribute in the community as well as posters to share in public spaces.

In the end, the team created six messages intended for the New Mainer community.

Facts about Hookah
Why Is Smoking/Nicotine Addictive?
Smoking Myths and Facts
The "Tea" on Vaping
Harmful Effects of Smoking
Quit Strategies

Dr. Salam Al-Omaishi (known as Dr. Sal) also created a PowerPoint presentation that included quit resources, which he has already shared. In fact, due to his positive experience working with HCCA on this project, Dr. Sal joined our Board of Directors!

We look forward to continuing to partner with CANMP more in the future - including a new statewide project to assess the needs of New Mainers.

To learn more about this project, contact April Hughes, Tobacco Prevention Coordinator at a.hughes@hccame.org.

Johnson Hall

Festival of Trees

We are thrilled that our Gardiner Area Thrives/

HCCA tree, donated to Gardiner's Johnson Hall Festival of Trees, brought some holiday joy to Pat Greenleaf of Gardiner!

The fourth annual Festival of Trees at Johnson Hall offered guests the chance to win one of 33 sponsored trees, ornaments, lights, and gifts.

The Gardiner Area Thrives/HCCA tree featured hand crafted origami ornaments and gifts with the theme of Family Fun for the Holidays - sleds, games, coloring, cards, and more.

Congratulations Pat!