A home is more than brick and beams and wood and maybe a barn and a little yard. Home is where my husband, Stan, and I raised five daughters. Where we sat at the kitchen table paying bills and helping with homework. It’s where we slept safely every night.

But for thousands of Maine families, a safe and affordable home is out of reach. 

Good morning, this is Janet Mills, governor of the great state of Maine and thank you for listening. 

Our state has one of the least affordable housing markets in the nation. In 2018, the average Maine renter’s wage was $11.44 per hour, while the hourly wage needed to rent a two-bedroom apartment was $18.73 an hour –ninth-highest in the nation. 

The waiting list for affordable housing has risen to more than 32,000 households. Over 20,000Maine households are on wait lists for federal rental assistance. 

And yet, for all of that, Maine is only producing 250 new affordable homes each year. 

Families that don’t qualify for affordable housing, or don’t have access to it, are paying outrageous rent prices. More than 35,000 renters in our state pay more than half of their incomes for rent and utilities. 

How do we expect to keep young families here, or to attract young families here, if there is no affordable place for them to live?

Last legislative session, Representative Ryan Fecteau — with cosponsors from both houses and both parties — introduced legislation to address this housing shortage. 

LD 1645 provides a refundable tax credit, similar to the Maine Historic Tax Credit, to create an additional 1,000 affordable homes over the next eight years, more than doubling our current production rate.  

At least 30 percent of the funding will go towards housing for seniors, 20 percent towards homes in rural communities, and 10 percent to renovating rural apartments.  

This investment will also trigger matching federal funds to stimulate job growth and economic activity in the construction, engineering and design sectors.

Three weeks ago, in my State of the State, I told the Legislature, “send this bill to my desk and I’ll sign it.”

Well, thanks to the bipartisan work of the Legislature, this week I did sign it.

You know they say home is where the heart is.

I believe the goal of ensuring that Maine people have a safe place to rest their head at night, a place where they can take care of their family, get ready for work and live with dignity and comfort is at the heart of this Administration.  

I was proud to sign this bill into law, and I hope it will allow us to say to thousands more Mainers, “Welcome Home”.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

A year ago, I presented my Administration’s first biennial budget. That budget was based on HOPE – health, opportunity, prosperity, and education.

The Legislature then debated that proposal, negotiated some compromises and then they enacted – respectfully and in timely fashion – a balanced budget, with two-thirds bipartisan support, without raising any taxes.

Since that time, we’ve been very fortunate. Our economy has remained strong, with continued growth and record low unemployment. The economic forecast and the revenue projections are positive, with more than half of projected revenue being one-time funds, but a forecast that permits us now to identify specific needs to present to the Legislature in the form of a supplemental budget.

Good morning. I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

The supplemental budget I proposed this week reflects three bipartisan priorities:

1. Setting aside money in the State’s Rainy Day Fund to protect us against an economic downturn;
2. Strengthening those services that protect the health, safety and well-being of Maine families;
3. Addressing our critical workforce needs and responding to the immediate needs of the educational and business communities.

In this budget I propose that we build on our state’s record-high Rainy Day Fund by setting aside another $20 million dollars of that projected surplus in savings. If that’s approved, the Budget Stabilization Fund will have grown by $50 million since I took office. That’s important savings for a Rainy Day.

Government is also about keeping people safe and protecting children and families so the supplemental requests 20 additional positions so we can respond to reports of child abuse or neglect, and it eliminates the current Section 29 waitlist for people with developmental disabilities while we work to improve services for all people with disabilities.

The budget also funds 14 new patrol officers and sergeants at the Maine State Police. The fact is, the number of state police patrol officers has not changed since the 1970’s, while traffic, technology and population have all grown. There are simply too few troopers to respond to car crashes, lost children and crime scenes.

The budget also invests in expanding Maine’s workforce to respond to the demands of the present and the needs of the future. So, it:

• funds short-term training programs through Maine’s community colleges; the Maine Apprenticeship Program; and Adult Education;
• invests in critical capital equipment like computers and forklifts for the career and technical education centers so that they can succeed in training our students in jobs that pay good wages. You know those CTEs haven’t had substantial funding for equipment since 1998. It’s time to get with the program;
• and the budget raises the state’s share of public education to nearly 52 percent for pre-K through 12 — that’s a two percent increase since I took office. And it makes whole our higher education institutions in the second year of the biennium.

I am also presenting a bond package to the Legislature, and asking them to let you, the voters, decide on $100 million in borrowing for transportation to fix the potholes and $15 million to bring high-speed internet to your towns.

This supplemental budget is balanced. It does not create new programs. It takes care that one-time monies are used for one time needs and that we fulfill our obligation within existing programs to take care of our schools, child welfare and public safety needs.

As the Legislature puts their own fingerprints on this document, I hope that they do so with caution, balancing the health and safety of Maine families and our workforce needs with the long-term health of the state.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

A little more than a month ago, the residents of a city in central China began getting terribly sick with a virus that no one had seen before. As that virus spread, one of the first things that public health officials did was begin to work on a vaccine because vaccines save lives.

They are one of the best tools to safeguard our health, protect the health of those around us, friends and loved ones and children.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

You know a century ago, as Maine celebrated its 100th birthday, influenza – the flu – posed a serious threat to our people and took thousands of lives. Globally, between 50 million and 100 million people (3 percent to 5 percent of the entire population) died from the flu between 1918 and 1920.

I don’t want that to happen again.

A hundred years later, the flu is still a public health concern, but thanks to vaccines, we are much safer than we used to be – if you get vaccinated.

Decades of scientific research prove that vaccines not only work but that they are safe.

Unfortunately, our state has had a vaccination opt-out rate that is three times higher than the national average for kids entering kindergarten. Our state ranks seventh in the country for the rate of non-medical opt-outs among school age children.

So last year alone, schools in Lincoln, York, and Cumberland counties experienced dangerous whooping cough outbreaks.

I supported Maine’s vaccination laws and, like every other Mainer, I also highly value personal choice. But, as your Governor, I am charged with protecting the health and safety of all Maine people, and amidst these outbreaks it has become painfully clear that Maine laws have not adequately protected the health of Maine people.

Last year I signed a bill to remove the non-medical exemptions from vaccination laws in order to better protect the health and welfare of people, especially young children, across our state – and this is something that four other states, including Mississippi, have done.

People opposed to this new law, however, have succeed in putting a referendum question on the ballot in March in the hopes of overturning the law.

Their campaign is masquerading itself as opposition to “Big Pharma,” but, really, pharmaceutical companies hardly benefit at all from producing vaccines, as the Bangor Daily News recently reported. And in trying to target so-called Big Pharma, whom nobody really likes, their campaign is purposefully trying to conflate vaccinations with other issues like the opioid epidemic when these issues are distinctly different.

Don’t buy it.

Vaccines work, but to make them more effective, people need to be vaccinated, especially children.

As the American Academy of Pediatrics notes, ensuring that everyone who can get vaccinated does get vaccinated “is important because it uniquely protects the most vulnerable members of our communities, including infants, pregnant women and other individuals whose immune systems cannot combat certain harmful or deadly infections or who aren't eligible to receive certain vaccines.”

Let’s not go back to a time when viruses like pertussis, the measles, mumps, or rubella were commonplace. 

Let’s protect our children. Let’s protect the future.

I urge Maine people to vote No on 1 March 3rd.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

In my first State of the State address as Governor this week, I told the people of Maine, you watching in homes, businesses and shops across the state and listening this morning, that our economy is on a solid footing and it is growing.

• Revenues are up, our gross domestic product is up, housing starts, construction, auto sales are all up and the state budget continues to have a healthy surplus.
• The private sector created 5,300 new jobs this past year.
• My Administration helped 800 people with disabilities find and keep jobs.
• Our unemployment rate went down, we paid off the $80 million debt for the Riverview Psychiatric Center and we stopped the bleeding of interest payments to the federal
• My Administration added $30 million to the Budget Stabilization Fund, for a total of $237 million – and I am proposing to add another $20 million more.
• And, on a bipartisan basis, we provided $75 million in property tax relief for Maine people — just look in your mailbox, about 300,000 of you should receive a $104 check.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

While all this is progress, it is also important to address the challenges that still loom large over our economy. We are not taking anything for granted and we look at the future with cautious optimism.

Our State’s ten-year economic development plan says if we want to strengthen our economy, we have to enhance critical infrastructure, including broadband, particularly in rural Maine.

We all know the problems with internet – slow internet and no internet. This company, DesignLab, for instance, a marketing and design firm in Millinocket, used to upload their video files on a hard drive, drive to the Medway gas station, and ask a bus driver to deliver the files to a video editor in Presque.

Internet speeds were dismal for them, and it severely limited their productivity. But now, with broadband in Millinocket, they are succeeding.

You know, as one small businessperson put it to me the other day, “You want to grow the economy?” she said, “Give us better internet.”

It is time for us to listen. High-speed internet is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity.

Increasing access to high speed internet will allow our businesses to expand and allow people across the state to connect with schools, with health care providers and with markets around the country and around the world.

I am proposing that the Legislature fund $15 million this year to expand broadband for Maine people and Maine businesses. We just can’t afford to wait any longer.

More than 100 communities across Maine have worked with their local hospitals, schools, businesses and providers to identify how they can bring better internet to their towns. They are ready to go for broadband – the only thing they are waiting for now is funding.

Some state funding, along with private and federal investments, can bring internet to the most rural communities Maine, and this initial investment of state funds is long-overdue and very important.

Please join me in asking your state representatives and your state senators in the Legislature to support investments in broadband.

It’s an investment in our economy and in your success.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Campaigning across the state in 2018, I met so many people worried that they’ll never be able to afford health care. 

Small business owners bracing for unpredictable hikes in costs for the health insurance their employees all need to stay healthy and stay working.

Seniors who are rationing prescription drug medications – or worse, going without because of the high costs. 

From Abbot to York to Baileyville and Winslow and every town in between, the most common thing keeping Maine people up at night is the cost of health care.

Good morning. I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

I remembered these people when, on my first day in office over a year ago, we expanded MaineCare by Executive Order. More than 57,000 people now have accessed life-saving health care coverage. 

I remembered them when last session we enacted LD 1 to protect coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions and ensure that Maine people have necessary mental health, pediatric care, maternal care and substance use disorder treatment. 

I remembered them when we enacted a comprehensive prescription drug package to make prescription drugs more affordable and when we restored the Maine Drugs for the Elderly Program that serves 1,800 more seniors in the biennial budget.

While we have made substantial progress in expanding access to health care, our health insurance system is still confusing, difficult to use, and so expensive. 

Thousands of Maine people who do have health insurance are falling through the cracks every day just trying to navigate the system. Not only that, but then they got to afford the health care they need to live, work and raise their families in Maine. 

Maine’s small businesses and self-employed people are struggling to cope with ever-increasing costs to provide health care coverage. 

For these reasons, I have introduced legislation, sponsored by Senate President Troy Jackson and Speaker Sara Gideon, to improve health insurance for Maine people and small businesses – all without any state tax dollars. 

This bill is called the “Made for Maine Health Coverage Act” because it sets Maine-specific deductibles and copays, it offers a Maine solution for small businesses, and it creates a Marketplace designed to best meet the needs of Maine people.

Among other things, the bill requires health plans to cover the first primary care visit and behavioral health visit each year for free – with no deductible, no co-pay, and no out-of-pocket costs. The second and third primary care or behavioral health visits could have a co-pay, but the deductibles would not apply.

This bill will also allow Maine people to shop for and compare plans by creating “clear choice designs” — health plans with the same deductibles, copays and out-of-pocket limits for the most commonly used services.

Maine’s small group market has seen increasing premiums and decreasing enrollment, making it very difficult for small businesses to offer coverage to their employees.

Our bill will pool insurance plans and premiums for individuals and small businesses, creating a combined, larger and more stable pool of enrollees to stem increasing costs. 

The bill will also extend reinsurance for the first time to small businesses – that’s the program that helps insurers cover the patients who need the most expensive treatments –  to lower their premiums. It’s funded by the federal government and by current fees in Maine’s reinsurance program. 

These two provisions of the Made for Maine Health Coverage Act will take effect only if we determine that they will in fact stabilize and reduce small businesses’ monthly premiums. 

The bill will also move Maine toward a State-Based Marketplace. That means Maine will conduct its own education, in-person consumer assistance, and outreach on coverage – putting us in the driver’s seat when it comes to helping Maine people learn about options and sign up for health care.

This move is more important than ever before, with legal and political challenges every day to the Affordable Care Act and to the health care that thousands of Maine people rely on. 

While MaineCare expansion, LD1 and the prescription drug reform package have helped thousands of Maine people by giving them access to health care and strengthening their health care protections, the Made for Maine Coverage Act is another important step forward in improving Maine’s health care system for our people and for our small businesses — all without any state tax dollars.

We are anticipating bipartisan support for this bill and I look forward to hearing from you and to working with the Legislature to enact it.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Commemorating a new day, at the beginning of a new year and a new decade, I stood the other day on a hilltop of a popular hiking spot and I surveyed the Atlantic Ocean to the east — I could almost see the Appalachian Trail far to the west and the lights of the cities to the south — and I thought about the past and the future of our great state.

You know, taking stock of the past at the turn of the year often lets us see the future more clearly.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

I recall vividly, a year ago, standing before the people of Maine and becoming your 75th Governor. I talked then about our history, about “the unsung” people of Maine as poet Wes McNair called them, and about health care, the opioid epidemic, climate change, education and the economy.

That same week, by executive order, Maine expanded Medicaid. Now, more than 56,000 people have accessed life-saving health care coverage.

Then with the passage of LD 1, we made sure that Maine people would not lose their health insurance due to pre-existing conditions and that their families would have necessary mental health, pediatric care, substance abuse treatment and the like. And we began the hard work of reducing health insurance costs for small businesses and self-employed individuals.

We commenced a battle to undo the ravages of the terrible opioid epidemic, providing life-saving naloxone across the state, creating more recovery centers, providing medication assisted treatment, beefing up prevention efforts and training dozens of recovery coaches to turn people’s lives around.

We issued the long-delayed voter-approved housing bonds to build 200 new homes and weatherize another 100 for seniors.

We revived the Children’s Cabinet and the public health nursing program, we hired dozens of child protection workers, beefed up prenatal care and commenced a Safe Sleep campaign to prevent the needless deaths of so many infants.

In June I signed a budget that had broad bipartisan support in the legislature — one that was negotiated and debated with civility and collaboration. That budget provided property tax relief — sent money back to the taxpayers — and it invested another $115 million in pre-K-12 public education and adult ed and it set us on the path to a $40,000 minimum teacher salary.

Working with the legislature, we enacted significant measures to tackle the high cost of prescription drugs. We passed groundbreaking legislation to require dangerous people to relinquish their firearms and we created incentives for residential and community solar projects, for offshore wind, for heat pumps and for the purchase of electric vehicles and charging stations through nontax dollars.

We created the bipartisan Maine Climate Council and Maine joined the US Climate Alliance.

In September I stood before the United Nations and represented you and told the delegates of 193 countries about the things our state is doing to combat climate change.

In November we announced a ten-year economic development plan — the first in decades — that’ll stimulate growth and personal income and workforce availability in the coming years, with results that are concrete and measurable.

So today I want to give thanks to the thousands of people across Maine who offered their help — citizens, businesses and legislators from every corner of the state — who gave us their suggestions about the economy, health care, public safety, taxation, climate change and children’s issues; who told us they want to see the state move forward with a civil tone and in a spirit of cooperation to become a place of innovation and excellence.

I especially thank the fifteen people who stepped up to serve in the new cabinet — including three people who served in the previous administration, four veterans, eight women and seven men. Perhaps the most qualified cabinet in recent history.

A year ago, I invited the people of Maine to “rise before the dawn — like the new mist over the Sandy River — and seek adventure, with hope in our hearts and love in our soul for the brand-new day.”

Today, in this new year, a year later, in our bicentennial year, in a brand-new decade, I want to thank you for the privilege of being your Governor, and I invite the people of Maine again to join me in an adventure of change, progress and prosperity.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening and I wish each of you the healthiest, safest and happiest year ahead.
 

The holiday season is a time to gather with friends, family, neighbors and loved ones in a spirit of celebration and joy. It’s a season of shortened days and evenings with many lights. Whether you spend this season renewing your faith, serving your community, or reflecting on a year that is well-spent, I wish you health, hope and happiness this year and in the year to come.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

While I look forward to spending time with my kids and my grandchildren, I am also spending this holiday season reflecting on the progress we have made this year and preparing for the work ahead.

This legislative session I worked on a number of bills and signed quite a number into law. These new laws — which were sponsored and supported by Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Green Party members alike — I think will move Maine in a positive direction. Everything from expanding access to health care for thousands of Maine people, combating the opioid epidemic, to embracing renewable energy, to investing in public education, adding to the Rainy Day Fund, adding to child protection worker staffs so we can save Maine children and prevent more tragedies as we saw a few years ago and much more, I am so proud of the progress we have made on behalf of the people of Maine.

Now it is time to build on that progress. Earlier this month, Commissioner Heather Johnson of the Department of Economic and Community Development and I released our State’s ten year strategy — our economic development plan — that I believe will foster innovation and collaboration and jump-start economic growth in our state to achieve a diverse, forward-looking economy that will offer everyone the opportunity to succeed.

In the new year, I look forward to implementing this plan in partnership with legislators, business people, community leaders, and individuals across the state.  In particular, we really want to add to the work rolls — another 75,000 people — so that the workforce needs of all of our employers can be met in the coming years.

Now, while we celebrate life’s blessings and look forward to the year ahead, we shouldn’t forget that the holiday season can also be difficult for some including those who have recently lost a loved one, those who are cold and hungry, or those who are far from family or friends this year. 

Maine people always lift each other up, we extend our hands and open our hearts to people in need and I ask that you do this of course this holiday season, especially for our children, people in need, people living alone, and seniors, and consider volunteering with agencies or contributing to the many organizations who are out there helping our neighbors every day. Afterall, as one ancient author once said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” 

I believe that’s true.

So here I am wishing you and your loved ones a safe and happy holiday season and a blessed new year. 

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening. 

Health care you know saves lives, that’s obvious.

It shouldn’t be a luxury to have health care, or a privilege reserved for, you know, well to do people, but more than 106,000 Maine people still don’t have health insurance.

A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that in Maine, about 180 people between the ages of 55 and 64 who died in the years from 2014 to 2017 would have lived if they had had better access to health care.

That is simply unacceptable.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Everyone gets sick at some point in their lives. Everyone needs to go to a doctor. As Governor, my top priority is to ensure that every Maine person can see a doctor, get preventive care and afford critical prescription medications, be healthy, work and care for their families.

While Washington politicians have attacked the critical health care services that we rely on, Maine has expanded Medicaid, known as MaineCare, and more than 42,000 people have signed up for health insurance under the MaineCare expansion so far this year.

One of those people is Kathy Stewart, a Waterville area hairdresser. She has emphysema and she has struggled to afford oxygen until now, when she finally got MaineCare coverage this year.

I don’t think any person should live with the constant fear of becoming ill or maybe even being unable to breathe because they can’t afford to go to a doctor, can’t afford to fill a prescription, or can’t afford to get life-saving care. Well like Kathy, now they don’t have to.

In this legislative session, in addition Medicaid expansion, I also signed LD 1, "An Act To Protect Health Care Coverage for Maine Families."

This legislation codified critical Affordable Care Act protections, including guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, a ban on lifetime and annual caps on coverage and allowing young adults up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ insurance, as well as coverage for essential health services such as ambulance services, prescription drugs, and pediatric care.

Our Administration is sponsoring a statewide campaign right now called CoverME to help Maine people including self-employed people and small businesses understand all of their health insurance options and to sign up for the coverage they need that’s best for them.

This campaign is funded by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant, not with state dollars.

Maine is pursuing a state-based marketplace also to put the state – not the federal government – in the driver’s seat when it comes to health care, but you should know that private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act is available now to all Maine people.

The enrollment period for Affordable Care Act plans is open now and goes until December 15th – about a week away. Almost 75 percent of Maine enrollees can find a plan for $75 a month or less. You can sign up for MaineCare insurance if you’re eligible at any time of the year of course.

If you need health insurance, or need to find a less expensive plan, please visit www.CoverME.gov. That’s www dot cover me dot gov to learn about coverage options for you and to get enrolled in an affordable and an effective health care plan.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

While my home remains in Farmington, Maine, as Governor it is my honor and privilege to reside at the Blaine House – as governors before me have done since 1919.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

The Blaine House is a living tribute to our state. It is owned by the people of Maine and it is faithfully maintained and has been modernized by stewards for generations.

For more than 100 years the Blaine House has welcomed world leaders in search of guidance, including President John F. Kennedy, Ulysses S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, William Tecumseh Sherman, Margaret Chase Smith, Andrew Wyeth, Amelia Earhart, and even heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.

Well this week we honored that legacy and took another step towards leadership by unveiling 61 new solar panels on the Blaine House garage and the grounds- leading the way towards a clean energy future for Maine.

The solar panels, installed by Maine company Revision Energy, will supply 26,000 kilowatt hours per year of clean, renewable electricity – enough to cover at least 25 percent of the Blaine House’s electrical needs.

These panels are expected to eliminate large amounts of carbon pollution each year, about the equivalent of not burning 43 barrels of oil.

43 barrels of oil is a lot.

When I talk about Maine people sending $5 billion out-of-state every year to pay for fossil fuel, that is exactly what I am talking about.

Whether it is heating the Blaine House or heating your house, filling up a state-owned car or your car, the big, out-of-state fossil fuel companies have too tight a grip on Maine people. They’re always forcing us to dig deeper, to buy oil or gas that harms our pocketbooks, our health, our air and our environment.

Enough is enough.

So, while these panels will have a substantial impact on the efficiency of the Blaine House, we view them as only a start for state government.

Maine is ready to lead.

That’s why I also signed an Executive Order this week directing Maine State Government to lead by example in pursuing energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainability.

It only makes sense that, as one of the largest consumers in Maine, our state government should be a role model in reducing energy use, embracing sources of renewables, curbing carbon pollution and recycling and reducing solid waste – all of which will lower operating costs at the same time.

This Executive Order directs state agencies to meet or exceed the state’s renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction targets. The goals for our state as a whole should also be goals for state government, and we will do our part to meet them.

First and foremost, we will prioritize energy efficiency whenever we upgrade state buildings.

We will pursue renewable energy generation and energy storage on state property whenever possible, and if not possible, we will purchase our energy from low-carbon sources.

We will add more electric vehicles when replacing old vehicles in the state fleet and we’ll install more electric vehicle charging stations at public facilities so that employees can charge their cars while they work.

We will conserve energy and water and minimize waste and packaging.

We will lead by example on the path to a cleaner, greener future and create green-collar jobs at the same time.

Now, not every person in Maine needs to install 61 solar panels to make a difference. I ask you to think about small, affordable changes you can make - from changing lightbulbs, tightening up doors and windows, insulating your basement or attic - keeping more money in your pocket and protecting our environment at the same time.

As this residence greeted leaders of the past, now the Blaine House greets a new generation of leaders in a manner that strengthens our economy, and protects the irreplaceable and beautiful state and natural resources which we share and care for.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening. 

When I was growing up, there were paper mills all across rural Maine. They provided good-paying jobs, and a skilled workforce, and gave families the foundation they could rely on for a bright future.

When a changing economy shuttered so many mills, thousands of hardworking Maine people were left without a way to provide for their families. 

Faced with uncertainty and economic instability, Maine people could have focused on their own families first and just ignored the needs of their neighbors. 

But we know, that is not the Maine way.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

In 2003, in the wake of several mill closures, Solidarity Harvest was founded. Every year since then, unions, farmers, faith communities, volunteer organizations, and businesses have gotten together every year to provide locally-grown food to laid-off workers and families who have hit hard times.

Last year more than 400 people — including some past recipients of meals — and 50 organizations volunteered their time and resources to Solidary Harvest to distribute 1,300 meals to families in Maine.

This week, I was proud to join volunteers for “Sort Week” to help Solidarity Harvest assemble food baskets to be delivered to recipients before Thanksgiving Day.

Maine farms and the farmers who run them are a cornerstone of our state’s economy, producing a variety of high-quality crops that contribute substantially to our way of life.

There is no reason for anyone to go hungry in Maine when we have healthy food grown by our neighbors right at our fingertips.

The baskets distributed by Solidarity Harvest combine fresh vegetables along with apples, homemade apple cider and bread and a turkey with all the fixings — all provided by Maine community members, farms, and businesses.

Solidarity Harvest is just one of the many charitable organizations helping Maine people in need during this holiday season.

From Solidarity Harvest to Stuff the Bus, which is led by Chuck Igo and provides food to Preble Street Kitchen, I urge all of you to see how you and your family might lend a helping hand this holiday season.

Looking out for one another is at the heart of our state, just as bringing people together to celebrate life’s blessings has been at the heart of the Thanksgiving holiday since its creation. 

On October 3, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln declared a National day of Thanksgiving.  

“In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity…peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere…” he said. “No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are ...gracious gifts… It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands,” he said, “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving.”

As we gather to give thanks this Thanksgiving, let us remember the gracious gifts we have received and let us extend our hands to welcome others to our tables, to our homes, and to our hearts.

That is the Maine way.

I am wishing you and your loved ones a very Happy Thanksgiving. 

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.