AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) - The Peter Alfond Foundation has made a $48 million investment to support community health in the Kennebec Valley region.

A $40 million endowment will allow MaineGeneral Health to support preventive health programs, including the expansion of services for the newly renamed 'Peter Alfond Prevention and Healthy Living Center.'

The center provides free and low cost classes on healthy cooking, physical activity, and more.

It will also provide for a team of community health workers who will go to worksites and other locations to provide services.

MaineGeneral Health administration noted the funding comes at a critical time, allowing them to focus operational dollars on COVID-19 response without neglecting community health initiatives.

Another eight-million dollar endowment will go to the Alfond Youth and Community Center in Waterville.

Barbara Crowley, MD, Peter Alfond Foundation Endowment Leader for MaineGeneral Health says it's a gift that will continue long into the future.

"We'll take five percent a year, and if we're good stewards of this money, it will go on for generations. So what we start here today will matter for three and four and five generations. So I feel very lucky to have this opportunity. This community is very lucky, and we are very grateful to the children of Peter Alfond."

Ken Walsh, CEO of the Alfond Youth & Community Center says the endowment is going to make a huge difference."This gift will continue to cement our relationship with MaineGeneral Health and bring the best practices of wellness to central Maine."

The Peter Alfond Foundation also provided ten million dollars in endowments to the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico and two million dollars to the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative in Massachusetts.

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Peter Alfond Foundation endows $48 million dollars for community health in the Kennebec Valley - WABI