Donations needed at GIFT food pantry
THE FREEZERS ARE EMPTY at the Grace Interfaith Food Table in Presque Isle. According to Michele Lombard-Fowler, volunteer director at GIFT, the month of July saw a 50 percent increase in the use of the pantry, while the number of both food and monetary donations are down. She encourages interested community members to make a donation to the food pantry, which helps meet hunger needs in Presque Isle, Mapleton, Chapman, Castle Hill and Crouseville.
PRESQUE ISLE — An increase this summer in the number of people needing food assistance — coupled with a decrease in donations — is creating challenges for the Grace Interfaith Food Table (GIFT).
“Since the beginning of the year, we’ve seen the use of the pantry increase by about 25 percent,” said Michele Lombard-Fowler, volunteer director at GIFT, which helps meet hunger needs in Presque Isle, Mapleton, Chapman, Castle Hill and Crouseville. “We’ve been averaging over 100 families a month that we are feeding.
“Normally in the summertime the need goes down, but this July we saw a 50 percent increase in the use of the pantry. Last year it was 80 families; this year it’s been 120 with the rest of this week to go,” she said. “Usually the offset in donations over the summer is mitigated because of the decrease in the number of people at the pantry, but that’s not been the case this year. Overall food and monetary donations are down. You see that — over the summer — in general, but because of the increased number of people, it’s really stretched the pantry to its capacity.”
Lombard-Fowler said there are a few reasons why the need for food assistance is historically lower in the summer.
“Sometimes food is a little more plentiful in terms of gardening and fresh produce, plus a lot of people travel and go away in the summer,” she said. “Also sometimes people have more income in the summer because they’re not paying as much in heating bills so they have more money they can put toward food, but that hasn’t been the case this year.”
Looking around the local food pantry, located at 11 Industrial St., there’s an obvious lack of food on the shelves and in the freezers.
“Normally we try to supplement the food that we have donated with some staples like eggs, margarine and bread, but we do not have the funding to be able to go out and purchase those staples,” said Lombard-Fowler, speculating that the quantity of food donations is down due to the economy. “Oftentimes we have people come in and pick from what is here, but I’m actually going to put together some food bags to give out because we simply don’t have enough of a variety to have it make sense for people to come in and ‘shop.’”
Though appreciative of the food donations GIFT receives from such organizations as Catholic Charities and the Good Shepherd Food Bank, as well as food and monetary donations from its four member churches (Grant Memorial United Methodist Church, Presque Isle United Congregational Church, St. John’s Episcopal Church and St. Mary’s Catholic Church) and donations from individuals and organizations such as the Boy Scouts of America and the United Way of Aroostook, Lombard-Fowler is putting out a general appeal to community members.
“We’re grateful for the contributions we receive; I think it’s just the number of people requesting the service have increased and the donations haven’t increased proportionately,” she said. “I would ask people that if they think it’s important to support the pantry to perhaps drop off a contribution — whether it be food or money. If people have extra produce from their gardens they’d like to donate, we would be more than welcome to that. Even though it’s summertime, the need for food continues.”
Food donations can be dropped off from 9 a.m.-noon Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Another way to help GIFT is to take empty returnables (bottles and cans) to Rick’s Redemption Center and ask that the money be given to the food pantry.
There are several volunteer opportunities at the food pantry, as well.
“We are looking for people to help distribute food, to help unload food once a month when it’s delivered, or drivers to help pick up our food allotment,” said Lombard-Fowler. “We’d like to increase our volunteer base, so people are encouraged to contact us.”
For more information, call 764-8584.
