It’s beginning to happen! Cuts have now been made to two USDA programs that are very important to the health of families in Maine. The Local Food Purchase Assistance Program would have provided about 600,000 pounds of products from Maine farms to be distributed through the Good Shepherd Food Bank to Food Pantries around the state. Our Boothbay Region Food Pantry would have been a happy recipient of this food for our neighbors.  

These cuts hurt twice (at least!): first, they harm the farmers who put in long, hard days, often in uncooperative weather, to provide healthy nutrition to Mainers; second, the cuts make it considerably more expensive for food pantries such as ours to provide that local produce to our clients.  

We already buy many shelf-stable goods from Hannaford and benefit from their donations of date-limited, fresh food, but we have been able to buy other products from Good Shepherd Food Bank at a greatly reduced price. We will need to have significantly more funding if we are to continue providing these truly nutritious supplements to our neighbors.  

The other program being cut is the Local Foods for Schools Program, which also buys food grown on Maine farms. By ensuring that kids have a better chance to grow and learn by providing one meal a day that is guaranteed to be nutritiously sound, this program offers some relief for the struggle that some of our neighbors have in raisinghealthy, strong children. The Boothbay Region Food Pantry will make every attempt to fill this gap, but, once again, it will require additional funding. Luckily, the cuts have not yet extended to SNAP (formerly Food Stamps), but this program too is on the federal agenda. 

We hope that you, our always generous community, will be able to offer some assistance. Your responses to earlier requests have been heartening but the need is only growing!