Aroostook County food pantries are struggling to help rising numbers of hungry Mainers because of higher costs and lack of donations.
Catholic Charities runs three food banks that help stock 26 food pantries in Aroostook County, and almost every pantry has reported an increase in clients, according to Jon Blanchard, Catholic Charities assistant director for hunger and relief services. Food pantries that used to see 200 to 300 people a month are now seeing 400 to 500, he said.
Members of each food pantry interviewed said they have strong community support in food donations from sources like farmers, hunters, food drives, local businesses, boy and girl scout troops, and churches. It still isn’t enough to meet the need.
“The prices are going up and so that means there’s more people that can’t meet their basic needs,” Blanchard said.
Aroostook County food pantries aren’t the only ones seeing big increases in people needing help. Good Shepherd Food Bank, which serves pantries in communities statewide, recently reported more Maine people are feeling the strain of increased food costs, inflation, and reduced pandemic-era benefits, resulting in the food bank distributing a record 33.6 million meals in its last fiscal year.
“Increased need has been seen throughout the state by our more than 600 partners,” Jessica Donahue, Good Shepherd’s director of marketing and communications, wrote in an email. “With one in seven children, or 36,490, facing hunger, the USDA says that 10.1 percent of Maine households were food insecure in 2022.”
The number of people using the Greater Interfaith Food Table pantry in Presque Isle in 2023 has doubled compared to last year, according to pantry volunteer Marcia Cogswell. GIFT serves residents from Presque Isle, Chapman, Mapleton, and Castle Hill.
An increase in the rent it pays for space at 24 Industrial Street was a factor in GIFT recently asking the Presque Isle city council for funding. GIFT has been making cuts to its food stocks, going from five or six pallets of food delivered per month to about three per month, said GIFT Manager Ray Dube. Monetary donations to GIFT have gone down as well, forcing the food pantry to dip into its reserve fund.
“If it wasn’t for some of our board members actually going out and buying some of the food and bringing it in, we would be really bad off,” Dube said.
Last month, the city council voted to provide $3,000 in city funds to GIFT for the first time to help the food pantry keep up with its costs.
Smaller food pantries like the Mars Hill Community Cupboard, which serves Blaine, Mars Hill, Bridgewater, Westfield, and E Township, have also seen an increase in the number of people they help.
Rena Kearney, Community Cupboard chairperson and treasurer, estimates that there’s a 25 to 30 percent increase in people coming to the pantry that began at the end of this summer, and around five percent are new to using the pantry’s services.
Community Cupboard also isn’t receiving as many monetary donations as it had in the past, Kearney said.
Ashland Food Pantry, which serves residents from Masardis, Ashland, Garfield Plantation, Nashville Plantation, and Portage, is averaging 90 families per month, a 25 percent increase this year.
“The state of the economy is playing a role more than anything else,” said Mary Caron, chairperson of the Ashland Food Pantry.
However, Ashland Food Pantry is on track with its financial goals, Caron said.
