NEWS & UPDATES
Emma Johnson ’14, a Bowdoin College ‘Community Matters in Maine’ Fellow Helps the Hungry
This summer, Emma Johnson ’14 received a Community Matters in Maine Summer Fellowship from Bowdoin to work for Preble Street, a Portland-based organization fighting hunger and homelessness. Executive Director Mark Swann, class of 1984, helped found Preble Street in the early 1990s, and this year was nominated for a Congressional Medal of Honor for his
Roving team assisting Portland's young homeless
PORTLAND – In response to a surge in the number of young homeless people in the city, the Preble Street Resource Center has an outreach team roaming streets and parks, connecting homeless youths to social services. The four-member team visits popular hangouts, such as Tommy’s Park and the camp sites in the woods along West
Ask NCFY: Getting staff used to the 'low-barrier’ approach at a youth shelter
Q: I run a shelter for homeless teens. I’m thinking about moving to a “low-barrier” approach to working with youth, meaning that we won’t turn young people away because they’ve been drinking or using drugs. How can I get staff to buy into this change? A: Ingrained in every good youth worker is the idea
Child hunger in Maine and the summer food program
Panelists discuss the crucial role federal nutrition assistance plays in stemming child hunger in Maine. In half of the state’s schools, 50% or more of students are eligible for subsidized lunches. In one in seven Maine schools, 70% or more of students qualify for the National School Lunch Program. Host: Garrett Martin, MECEP Executive Director
Aging out of foster care
Dianna Walters with the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, Martin Zanghi with USM and Therese Cahill-Low with the DHHS Office of Child and Family Services will join in a discussion about young adults who “age out” of Foster Care. What becomes of young people with no permanent family connections? What needs to happen to give
Southern Maine soup kitchens and food pantries to get emergency federal aid
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree announced this week that soup kitchens and food pantries in southern Maine will be getting some lost federal funding restored. Pingree said federal officials have agreed to dip into some unspent funds to help organizations in Cumberland County meet a growing demand for their services. Last summer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Group sits in the heat to draw attention to homelessness
On the longest, and one of the hottest days of the year, one group wants to make sure we don’t forget the homeless. The Preble Street Homeless Voices for Justice was sitting out in Post Office Park on Wednesday from sunrise to sunset. The group is hoping to remind people that homelessness is not just
Taste of the Nation to glitter on Great Diamond Island
Nothing brings Maine’s top chefs together like a good cause, and this summer is no exception as chefs from the state’s best restaurants gather on Great Diamond Island to fight childhood hunger. The 7th Annual Taste of the Nation benefit will be held this Sunday from 3:45 to 8 p.m. at the Diamond’s Edge Restaurant,
Portland emergency shelters overflowing, no relief for homelessness in sight
PORTLAND – On the wall behind city Health and Human Services Director Doug Gardner’s desk is a classroom-sized whiteboard. On Monday, there were 10 high-priority projects, issues, and initiatives written on it. Five of them – emergency shelter overflow, a veteran’s affairs case worker at the Oxford Street shelter, the Homeless Task Force, a meeting
St. Joe’s and Preble Street pick up where schools left off, offer kids meals in the summer months
Ask any school administrator and you’ll find the sad truth is many kids today have their nutritional needs met mostly by the schools, through healthy lunches in the cafeterias and maybe snacks at other times. Busy parents and a tough economy has left many home kitchens without as frequent or nutritional a mealtime schedule. So
Task force focuses on plight of homeless
PORTLAND – More than 50 people turned out Thursday night for a public hearing on homelessness as a city task force works toward a strategic plan that reflects “the heart of the community.” The hearing in the Portland Public Library’s Rines Auditorium was the first held by the city’s Task Force on Homelessness, which was
Food Stamps and the Farm Bill
The version of the farm bill that emerged from the Senate Agriculture Committee contains $4.5 billion in cuts to the food stamps program over 10 years. That amount is a small fraction of the nation’s spending on food stamps, currently nearly $80 billion a year, but would, nevertheless, be devastating for nearly half-a-million households that
