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 … Read more
PORTLAND, Maine — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced Monday that $93,000 in federal grant money will be used to pay for 46,500 meals at soup kitchens and food pantries in Cumberland County. The news comes three days before a community forum held by Portland’s task force on homelessness, a group created by city officials to … Read more
Last week, I read a story in the Portland Press Herald that was perfect for this Philanthropy Friday series. The story, written by Avery Yale Kamila, was about how businesses in Maine were using employee-managed gardens to help stock local food pantries. Not only are companies like Harvard Pilgrim and Idexx Laboratories donating fresh produce … Read more
PORTLAND, Maine – The president of Hannaford Bros. Co. was scheduled Wednesday to receive the 2012 Hon. Edmund S. Muskie Access to Justice Award. Beth Newlands Campbell has supported many initiatives that promote equality and well-being, according to a press release issued Wednesday by Pine Tree Legal Assistance. The award is presented annually to recognize … Read more
For the second year, Patty Cook is gardening on company time. A manager at Idexx Laboratories, Cook is one of hundreds of employees cultivating crops for local food pantries behind the global veterinary testing company’s sprawling corporate headquarters in Westbrook. "We delivered to the Sagamore (Village) Food Pantry last year," Cook said. "It was amazing … Read more
The Law Offices of Joe Bornstein is proud to support ‘Preble Street and ‘The Power of Sharing.’ For one week, Portland’s Time & Temperature Building will display the message ‘END HNGR’ to bring attention to Maine’s food insecurity crisis and honor Preble Street’s efforts to help this statewide problem. Food insecurity in Maine, which started to surge in … Read more
PORTLAND, Maine — Portland social workers, with the help of a university professor, are crunching the numbers on what they say may be the first in-depth study of food pantry users in Maine. Among the more striking early conclusions, said Donna Yellen, who is spearheading the effort, is the number of working people who still … Read more
Panel discusses how Maine families and children struggle with hunger and how we can take advantage of the existing infrastructure and available federal funding to help reduce hunger, including the federal Summer Food Service Program, subject of a forthcoming MECEP report. Host: Connie Zhu, MECEP Policy Analyst Guest(s): Ned McCann, Vice President, Maine Children’s Alliance; … Read more
A soon-to-be-released study indicates that a significant number of working families in Maine are reliant on soup kitchens and food pantries to meet their nutritional needs. The study of hundreds of families using food pantries in Cumberland County was undertaken by the Portland-based non-profit Preble Street. “Forty-two percent of the households we surveyed were working … Read more
People began lining up just after 9 a.m. Thursday outside Preble Street’s food pantry, waiting for the doors to open four hours later. But even as Preble Street, a multi-service agency serving homeless and low-income residents in the Portland area, sees demand rising for its food pantry and three soup kitchens, federal funding that helps … Read more
