Leading Change: Farewell to Kristen Miale

When Good Shepherd Food Bank says farewell to longtime President Kristen Miale on June 30, 2023, we’ll be on the cusp of meeting the vision she has carried for nearly a decade: making sure all Mainers experiencing food insecurity have access to enough nourishing and culturally relevant food they need, when and where they need it.

After taking on the role of president and helping the organization transform its focus to sourcing and distributing nourishing, healthy food, Kristen helped inspire a new bold goal to close Maine’s meal gap.

It is estimated that more than 30 million meals are missing from the plates of Mainers each year, and we have been working with Maine’s charitable food network to strategically close that gap since 2015. Together, we’ve increased food distribution by 180% from 10.7 million meals a decade ago to nearly 30 million meals today. We are closer than ever to closing this gap, with plans to close it completely by 2025.

OUR BOLD GOAL: Closing Maine’s Meal Gap

When we talk about our bold goal, we are referring to closing Maine’s meal gap—the annual number of statewide meals missing from households after accounting for food purchased with individual resources or accessed through the federal safety net—which includes programs like SNAP and WIC.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Kristen helped lead through listening and learning, which inspired the expansion of our advocacy platform and strengthened the Food Bank’s commitment to equity. Kristen’s leadership has helped transform the scale and scope of our work and the organization is now poised to continue to lead change through the Food Bank’s next chapter.

Along this journey, Kristen has helped lead through immense change, starting by helping the organization focus on healthy foods and then building our capacity to distribute more meals through a second distribution center in Hampden.

Help us celebrate a decade of Kristen Miale’s leadership. Make a gift in her honor and submit a message of congratulations and thanks by visiting: www.FeedingMaine.org/Kristen