July 11, 2024, my first day in the role of food pantry coordinator here at the Maine Seacoast Mission. A year has passed and has been full of many changes, challenges, and eye-opening experiences for me.
Your gift to the Maine Seacoast Mission makes you part of all we do.
One challenge I have is sourcing healthy foods that our community wants to eat. As the prices for food go up, more people depend on the pantry to get by, however it is getting increasingly harder to locate affordable options even through the Good Shepherd food bank. We make weekly trips to Ellsworth. Visiting Walmart and Shaw’s to pick up retail donations. However, those donations fluctuate in volume from week to week sometime with nothing to retrieve, leaving the pantry shelves sparsely stocked. I have requested more pick-up times but have found that they simply aren’t any more available.
Another challenge is sourcing food that patrons will use. Once a month we get a free food allotment. Great, accept that many times it ends up being large quantities of things that many here in Washington County will not use such as chickpeas, black beans, and refried beans. I have learned that I can refuse products we cannot move, as well as reach out to other pantries and share the wealth so that these items do not take up our valuable storage space. However again, this means our shelves are either sparse or stocked with items that do not move. I have been working on teaching patrons how to use items they are not familiar with; this is a work in progress as some receive this openly and others are set in their ways and have no interest in trying new things.
This past year has been an incredible experience for me. My role here has opened my eyes to challenges here in the area I grew up in that I never knew about. I am grateful that I can help others and learn and grow in my role here at the pantry. I look forward to many years to come working with some of the most amazing people I have ever worked with. The Maine Seacoast Mission has been a blessing in my life, as I witness the daily blessings it brings to many families.
To learn more about the Mission’s food pantry, visit the Food Security page, or read a recent story entitled Increased Need Drives More Neighbors to Pantry.