FORT KENT, Maine — The Maine Credit Unions’ Campaign for Ending Hunger, which has raised and distributed more than $7.2 million to help Maine residents since 1990, recently partnered with Brenda Davis, one of the state’s leading ending hunger advocates and director of BBC Opportunity Center, an Old Town-based agency that serves thousands of Maine people, to cover the state of Maine on foot to raise awareness about the state’s hunger problem.
In early November the Tour visited 12 communities in Aroostook County including Ashland, Caribou, Eagle Lake, Fort Fairfield, Fort Kent, Houlton, Island Falls, Madawaska, Presque Isle, St. Agatha, St. Francis and Van Buren. As part of the Tour’s mission of making an impact in each community it visits, the Maine CUs’ Campaign for Ending Hunger presented checks to a food pantry in each of those communities. Collectively, the contributions will enable the pantries to purchase nearly $20,000 worth of food and supplies at Good Shepherd Food Bank.
The 16th annual month-long walking tour is the largest yet, visiting a record-setting 91 communities.
“Traveling around, one thing is clear – hunger is a problem, but communities want to solve it, and that’s what keeps me going. They truly appreciate the fact that people care that there is a need, and are doing something to help,” said Davis.
Davis, who also is executive director of BBC Opportunity Outreach in Bangor, said 15% of Maine’s population is identified as food insecure. She visited food pantries, hunger organizations and credit unions in each town she visited, and picked up a contribution from the Campaign for Ending Hunger at each credit union she visited.
Overall, the campaign’s contributions will help food pantries throughout the state purchase nearly $175,000 worth of food to feed Maine’s hungry.
“In addition to contributing to food pantries in each community, the other part of the tour’s mission is to raise awareness. The reality is hunger exists in every community across Maine and, while there is food, many people have a great hardship in accessing it. This is what we are specifically focusing on this year,” remarked Jon Paradise, vice president of governmental and public affairs for the Maine Credit Union League.
Davis he began her month-long journey Oct. 27 in Augusta. The tour concluded with a special ceremony in Hampden Nov. 28.
Since 1990, the Maine Credit Unions’ Campaign for Ending Hunger has raised over $7.2 million to help end hunger in Maine including a record-setting $623,000 in 2015.
