Blog
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Advocacy Update: The Farm Bill
Every 5 years, Congress reauthorizes the Farm Bill, which is the legislation that sets policy for agriculture and nutrition programs in the United States. The most recent Farm Bill was set to expire in September 2012 and while the House and Senate spent much of last summer debating a new ... -
Hunger in America Study - volunteers needed
Here at Good Shepherd Food Bank, we're busy working on an exciting project - Hunger in America 2014 ('the Hunger Study'), a unique national study of charitable food assistance.Performed every four years since 1993, the Hunger Study is the largest volunteer-driven research study in the nation. It provides comprehensive ...
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Coming Soon - a statewide needs assesment of child hunger in Maine
This past August I began my two year position as a Feeding America Child Hunger Corps Member. I eagerly entered into this job, equipped us with all the resources needed to research and prepare a Community Needs Assessment around child hunger in Maine. As I started my research, I began ...
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Advocacy Update
As the 126th state legislature begins its work and Congress tackles our nation's fiscal challenges, the Food Bank is keeping its eye on a number of policy issues both here in Maine and down in Washington, D.C.
We recently testified at the State House in front of the ...
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Impact of Fiscal Cliff Agreement on Hunger Relief Network
Now that Congress has passed an agreement to avert the "Fiscal Cliff" and prevent tax rates from rising on 98% of Americans, you might be wondering, "what's the impact?" As part of the deal, the automatic spending cuts (sequestration) that were scheduled to go into effect on January 1 ...
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Thoughts After the First 100 Days
One of the many benefits of being the president of Good Shepherd Food Bank is that I get invited to a lot of interesting events. Last week, I attended a talk by Former United States Senator George Mitchell hosted by the Maine Community Foundation. Senator Mitchell talked about the need ... -
Fighting Child Hunger with the Kids Cafe
Thanks to the generosity of Shaw's Supermarkets, the Food Bank recently opened two new Kids Café sites to reach children facing hunger. We are now providing healthy snacks & meals to kids at Oxford School Age Child Care & Preschool and Tree Street Youth Center in Lewiston.Kids Café is an ...
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Child Hunger Corps Comes to Good Shepherd Food Bank
Hello all, My name is Samantha Culver and I am the new Child Hunger Corps Member for Good Shepherd Food Bank. My position is a two-year service commitment funded through Feeding America that is driven by the goal of fighting child food insecurity.During my two years at the Food ...
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September is Hunger Action Month!
Now is your chance to join Good Shepherd Food Bank, Feeding America, and food banks all across the nation in raising awareness about hunger in America. September is Hunger Action Month and we need you to help us spread the word.
More than 49 million Americans, including 16 million children ...
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Reaching seniors in need
I first learned of the Senior Food Mobile model as a way to reach food insecure senior citizens in Oklahoma about a year ago when I attended Feeding America's Agency Capacity, Programs & Nutrition Conference. I was so inspired that I came back and started sharing the story of how ... -
Fighting hunger from the field, to the food pantry, to the kitchen
On Monday we were the lucky recipients of a visit from the Teen Ag Crews from Aldermere Farm in Rockport and Wolfe's Neck Farm in Freeport. You may be asking...what is a Teen Ag Crew? It's a group of teens who are hired by the farm to ...
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First Annual Beacon of Hope Award Goes to Volunteer Regional Food Pantry
For the past year, I have had the pleasure of helping to organize Good Shepherd Food Bank's first annual State Network Conference. From the beginning, we knew this conference would be an incredible opportunity to honor a partner agency and its staff & volunteers for the incredible work they do ... -
Fighting Child Hunger with the Summer Food Service Program
It was last November, just a few months after I started as the Program Manager here at the Food Bank, when Gail Lombardi from the Department of Education reached out to the Food Bank looking for help in starting a Summer Lunch program in Bangor. I left my meeting with ... -
Maine Gives.
Maine was recently named the most peaceful state in the country. I suspect that, if we could measure the giving spirit across states, we would come out quite high in that regard as well. Unfortunately, we also have 1 in 4 kids who are undernourished because their families cannot provide ...
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Food Donor Spotlight: Walmart Distribution Center
Hello again! Barbara here - the Food Resource Developer for Good Shepherd Food Bank. I work with businesses like the Walmart Distribution Center (DC) in Lewiston to help them donate product that would otherwise be thrown away.
My co-worker Nancy Perry and I recently attended the Walmart DC's General Meeting ...
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Bringing BackPacks to Auburn
As Program Manager for Child Hunger Initiatives at Good Shepherd Food Bank, I tell people constantly about the childhood food insecurity crisis here in Maine. Though the groups and individuals I talk to are always different, the distress and disbelief people express when they hear that 1 in 4 children ... -
Getting to Know our Neighbors - a Tour of Tambrands in Auburn
The Tambrands plant on Hotel Road in Auburn is imposing. I've always wondered what was behind the blue walls with the tinted windows, and recently I had the opportunity to find out.
I'm the Food Resource Developer for Good Shepherd Food Bank. I work with businesses like Tambrands ...
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Building Local Capacity: First Ever State Network Conference
The reason that Good Shepherd Food Bank was able to distribute 13 million pounds of food to families in need in 2011 is simple - our partnerships with local hunger relief organizations across the state.
The hundreds of food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters that we work with are on the ...
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Harvest for Hope
Spring is in the air today, but as Mainers we know that, most likely, winter isn't done with us yet. Nonetheless, here at Good Shepherd Food-Bank we are planning for the warmer months ahead.
This summer, Good Shepherd Food Bank will once again partner with Maine farmers and food ... -
Hard Choices: Heat or Eat?
Winter in Maine can be a difficult time. Whether we are pummeled by snow storms or whether, like this year, we are lucky enough to have a mild winter, many families find themselves making tough choices. Faced with a tight budget and high utility costs, many Mainers are forced to ...