The Board of Directors of St. Andrews Auxiliary voted at its June meeting to donate $1,500 to Food for Thought, a program that provides healthy and easy to prepare food to children who might otherwise be at risk of malnutrition.

Nancy Van Dyke, Mary Patch, and Helen Meserve from the Boothbay Region Community Resource Council (BRCRC), under whose auspices the program operates, described their work that culminates in their delivery of a bag of food to the children’s home for their consumption during the weekend or at other times when the school’s breakfast and lunch programs are not available. Food for Thought is located at the St. Andrews Community Health Center, where they can use the kitchen to store the food and receive deliveries. In the future they plan to offer lessons in cooking nutritious food to the children and their families.

Currently they are serving 47 children, but with the help of school counselors and other area professionals they have identified more than 100 children who would benefit from this program. On average the cost per child for a weekend’s food basket is $6, which pays for peanut butter, canned tuna fish or chicken, cereal, milk, fresh fruit, and sandwich meat or canned beans. Some local businesses have become regular contributors of fresh food products to Food for Thought boosting the group’s capacity to meet this specific community need.

A healthy diet is good medicine, and helping to fund efforts to provide good medicine is central to the mission of the St. Andrews Auxiliary. You can help forward this mission by joining the Auxiliary. An application and more information are available at the Thrift Shop in the Meadow Mall or by contacting De Amplo, Membership Chair at seawood98@aol.com. If you would like to help with Food for Thought, contact Nancy Van Dyke at 207-882-6292, email at takobelle13@hotmail.com, or Mary Patch at 207-633-6359, email at mspatch@roadrunner.com.