Kathy Doyon, center, sits down and listens to her students in the Food as Medicine program. Doyon is the Lead Program Coordinator for the Healthy Eating, Active Living team at Healthy Community Coalition.  Submitted photo

FARMINGTON — MaineHealth, in collaboration with Hannaford, Good Shepard Food Bank and Healthy Community Coalition of Greater Franklin County (HCC), will be offering another session of its one-year Food as Medicine program. The next session began Monday and will continue over the next year.

“This new and exciting program is designed to meet people where they are at with their health, provide the right tools, skills and support to make small changes over time to feel better,” said HCC Director LeeAnna Lavoie in a news release.

The course is hosted by Kathy Doyon, lead program coordinator for the Healthy Eating, Active Living team at HCC, and will last 52 weeks. The program is divided into weekly sessions in the beginning for four months, then bi-weekly sessions before settling into monthly sessions toward the end of the course.

“Behavioral change doesn’t happen quickly at all,” Doyon stated in an interview Jan. 6. “So initially, our setup is weekly for the first 16 weeks, and by then you’ve gone through the Cooking Matters curriculum, which has a nutrition component for an hour at the start of the class. Then we go out and we cook.”

To enroll in the class, a provider can refer their patients to the class and Doyon will reach out to register them, but patients can also self-refer and reach out to Doyon as well.

Candidates for the class must be older than 18 and meet each of the following criteria to enroll in the course:

1. Have a MaineHealth primary care provider within Franklin County.

2. Reported food insecurity within the last year.

3. One of the following five conditions: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, diabetes, or body mass index higher than 25.

Once enrolled, students will receive weekly recipes with access to food from Franklin Memorial Hospital’s food pantry to cook those recipes. According to Doyon, students are also encouraged to support each other and bond.

“What I’ve noticed is cohorts become a little support group for each other, too,” she said. “They almost become like family where they rely on each other. So, they’re excited to come, and it’s in person, which I think is really crucial right now.”

According to Doyon, there is a one-week grace period for people that meet all the criteria to join the program. Though the program was set to start Monday, potential cohorts have three weeks after that date to join the program. Otherwise, they will have to wait for the next cycle which Doyon is in the early stages of planning with nothing solidified as of yet.

“By the fourth week, that’s usually my cut off, because that’s when we start the curriculum,” Doyon stated.

The program is being funded, in part, by a $350,000 donation from Hannaford Supermarkets and the Hannaford Charitable Foundation. The donation was announced Sept. 13, 2022, as part of a new initiative, Eat Well, Be Well — A Path to Better Health.

“Hannaford is part of the fabric of Maine,” Todd Bullen, Hannaford Supermarkets vice president of retail operations, stated during a news conference at FMH in Farmington. “We have a longstanding commitment to nourishing our communities, especially when it comes to improving access to food and meals for those who need it the most.”

The program is also held in Franklin Memorial Hospital’s new food pantry, which opened in November of last year, and Doyon is more than pleased with the new space. “It’s great to have the classroom where everyone can fit and see the projector, but also have the space for the pantry, which is great,” she said.

Last program’s cohorts, who started in June of last year, are in their monthly sessions and are expected to graduate from the program in May. Doyon stated that many in the program have already made significant changes in their diets and eating habits.

“I had one woman report to me, ‘you ruined my life,’” she commented. “She’s just being funny. She (said to me) ‘every time I go into the grocery store now, I flip stuff over and I read the back of it. Things I used to buy, I don’t buy anymore.’ So, it is working.”