Ashley Goodwin has been a St. Mary’s Health System employee for almost 19 years. For the last four, she’s served as practice manager at Auburn Medical Associates’ primary care practice. Ashley is also a member of St. Mary’s Mission Advisory Committee, a past winner of the Marguerite d’Youville Award for Compassion and helped launched an emergency food kit program for patients who are facing food insecurity.
When she was asked to do an interview she replied, “Attention is out of my comfort zone. I enjoy collaborating with others, as I believe it takes a village to do wonderful things. Happily, I’m surrounded by incredible people who continually extend themselves to help those in need.”
In December 2021, the Auburn Medical Associates team formed a work group and began collaborating with St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, Metz Culinary Management and Mission Integration, to examine how they could help address food insecurity within the practice. Before long, patients were being screened and if they were identified as food insecure, they were offered:
- An emergency food kit including a protein, grain, fruit and vegetable
- An Androscoggin County Community Food Resources Guide with information for how to access nutrition assistance, meals for kids, pantries and soups kitchens
In the span of just over a year, 74 emergency food kits and hundreds of food resource guides have been distributed to help 115 adults and 33 children in the area.
The best part of getting involved in Mission activities is the team collaborating to do good things and making an impact in the community,” shares Ashley. “The compassion, empathy and support I see every day is inspiring. Honestly, it’s what has kept me at St. Mary’s for so many years.”