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V O L . X X V I N O. V I M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 2 0 28 Boulos Asset Management Norway Savings Bank Renewal by Anderson The Rowley Agency The V*A Agency Verrill TO OUR 2019 COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING PARTNERS... Thank You. Help us make this the best year yet! Become a 2020 Community Partner Support great community programming & activate your brand while having fun! For more information contact: amanda@thompsonspointmaine.com WHOSE SUPPORT HELPS TO MAKE THESE GREAT COMMUNITY EVENTS POSSIBLE. Join us for Summer Sunsets on the Point in 2020! Free and open to the public, family friendly & dog friendly. Food trucks, beer, wine, cocktails, yard games, kids activities and stunning waterfront sunset views. Come stock up on fresh farm products, purchase handmade items from local Makers, enjoy delicious craft food and beverage and hang out with friends. With a mix of farmers, artisans, vintage, jewelry, local food, crafts and more, there's something for everyone at the Market! Free and open to the public. Select Sundays Thompson's Point and the Portland Bach Experience invite you to join us as we bring the music and characters of the beloved Nutcracker to life. This interactive experience allows children to get up and dance and interact with the dancers and musicians. Brick South transforms into a winter wonderland bursting with holiday spirit and activities for the entire family. November 2020 STAY TUNED FOR EXCITING NEW EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS! because recipients often didn't know how to cook fresh foods. So Miale, who loves to cook, started a nutritious-cooking program for low-income families and offered it at places like food pantries and homeless shelters. Looking for funds to expand the program, she came upon Cooking Matters, a program of Share Our Strength, a national organi- zation working to end childhood hunger in the U.S. Doesn't take 'no' "I called them, and said, 'I want to work for you,'" she recalls. "They said, 'We don't have programs in Maine.' I said, 'Let's start a program in Maine.'" For a while, that led nowhere. Miale kept calling. "I'd say, 'It's me again,'" she says. "Then one time I called and they said, 'We were just talking about you. We got a grant to start a program from scratch. You should apply.'" She needed to apply as part of an established organization. So she got Good Shepherd and Hannaford to back her on the application. In 2010, she started Cooking Matters Maine as a Good Shepherd program. "I think Kristen is one of those people you can't say 'no' to," notes Vail. "It's a little like Mother Theresa or your mother. She asks, and you want to meet her stan- dards. She's constantly raising the bar in terms of being appreciative on the one hand and then helping everyone to under- stand the need to move us forward as a community." Good Shepherd was struggling with the recession, increasing need and decreasing donations. An interim presi- dent accepted Miale's offer to build a cash flow forecast and strategic plan. Then Good Shepherd hired her as its per- manent president. "I fell in love with the business of the food bank," she says. "It became clear what we needed to do. First and foremost, we had to change the focus to nutrition." New sourcing model From the outset, she aimed to shift the sourcing model. The food bank was accus- tomed to taking all donations and making sure they were distributed. Generous dona- tions of things like ice cream and soda regularly came in. Miale aimed to eliminate unhealthy foods and build the nutrition program as a key element to eliminate hunger and empower the disadvantaged. Existing partners, like Hannaford and Wal-Mart, agreed. Hannaford rolled out a "fresh res- cue" program, setting aside things like fresh produce, dairy and proteins about to expire or imperfectly packaged. Miale instituted data collection systems that tracked donations and hired experts in things like logistics. "You can be grassroots when you're small," she says. "But the food bank had to become a logistics business." Since then, her accomplishments include growing overall distribution and shifting to healthy foods. She helped complete a $5 million Food For All capi- tal campaign, which exceeded the target donation amount and was funded by more than 900 donors. The new Hampden dis- tribution center allows Good Shepherd to increase purchases from over 75 local farmers and vendors by 60%, sourcing 2.1 million pounds of fresh foods and fun- neling $770,000 into Maine's agricultural economy. "The biggest thing Kristen and the lead- ership around her have done is transform the way we look at food for our most vulner- able populations," says Victoria Rogers, senior director of Let's Go! at the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center in Portland and a Good Shepherd Food Bank board member. "Kristen said, 'If we're going to be working with vulnerable populations, let's give them their best shot to succeed. That's filling their stomachs not just with food, but with healthy food." Kristen Miale 5 QUESTIONS Age: 48 Leadership icon: Oprah Winfrey Maine's biggest business challenge: Poverty Maine's biggest business opportunity: New Mainers Best business advice: To always be your authentic self. It can be tempting to overpromise, agree to something you're not entirely comfort- able with, or avoid the conflict — but you'll regret it every time. Listen and act on what you know to be true. » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E

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