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Upon hearing the news that the Bath Area Food Pantry was without power for nearly a week, losing all food from nearly two-thirds of their entire inventory in freezers and refrigerators, the Maine CUs’ Campaign for Ending Hunger has announced it is making an emergency contribution of $2,500 to the Food Bank.
“The Maine Credit Unions’ Campaign for Ending Hunger is about helping, especially in time of crisis, and the impact of what the Bath Area Food Pantry lost in terms of meat, all of their dairy and eggs because of the power outage, warranted the Campaign’s help. We have five credit unions with branches in the area, so some have members that were likely affected by this event,” stated Jon Paradise, Vice President of Governmental and Public Affairs for the Maine Credit Union League, adding, “The area credit unions – Atlantic FCU, Down East CU, Five County CU, Lisbon Community FCU, and Midcoast FCU, were aware of the contribution and were pleased that the Campaign could help.”
According to the Food Pantry, in addition to losing a significant amount of food, demand is higher than usual, with the Food Pantry reporting almost double the amount of families that needed assistance this past week. Kimberly Gates, Executive Director of the Pantry, said, “11 of the 50 families that came on Tuesday night had never been there before. They lost just like everybody else, and they didn’t know where else to go, and they’re not families that would normally come to a food bank situation, they’re getting by, but when you lose everything, they were just coming to try to get something to get through the week.”
Since 1990, the Maine Credit Unions’ Campaign for Ending Hunger has raised more than $7.2 million to help end hunger in Maine, including a record-setting $675,000 in 2016. 100% of all funds raised go directly to ending hunger and stay in Maine.