UNE’s Jennifer Gunderman featured in story about volunteering during COVID-19

Jennifer Gunderman, M.P.H., director of the Maine Area Health Education Center and assistant clinical professor of public health at the University of New England, was recently featured in a sprawling piece in the Maine Monitor about the ways in which Maine’s people have volunteered in their communities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The article, “Stepping out and helping out,” which was also shared in the Penobscot Bay Pilot, chronicles many Mainers’ acts of community service throughout the year. Gunderman was prominently featured in the article’s lead section about volunteers harvesting produce at the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center’s fields in Swanville this August.

Typically, inmates serve their last few months of incarceration working the fields as part of their rehabilitation. But with jail cells cleared due to the pandemic, there have not been enough inmates to meet the reentry center’s needs.

Gunderman joined several others to harvest food at the 18-acre farm, which this year will produce 200,000 pounds of vegetables this year. The food will go to more than two dozen food pantries, soup kitchens, and other places where people in need can access the food.

“The Reentry Center has done amazing things. How can we let all this food go to waste?” Gunderman told reporter Susan Cover.