At noon, I unfold a grey table in front of the Perryman Village community building and set some bagged lunches on top, next to tickets for the weekly raffle. Hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes rest near a collection of colorful, patterned masks, ready for kids to pick their favorite. For the next hour, a stream of kids come to claim a lunch and enter the raffle, some picking up extras to bring home to their siblings.
As with most scenes from the last several months, this image of the Summer Food Service Program, which provides summer meals to kids, is profoundly influenced by COVID-19. In past years, kids collected their meals, then ate and played games together at central gathering spaces. Although the communal eating model is not currently feasible, the importance of providing access to free summer meals is just as important as ever. Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program operates sites for this federally-funded, locally-administered program at libraries, schools, churches and neighborhoods. Due to challenges posed by COVID-19, we have had to reduce the number of sites from last year, although the number of kids served at each site has remained relatively stable.
We have been fortunate to have many days of beautiful weather that have made the transition to exclusively outdoor distribution easy. We have great partnerships with summer camps and amazing volunteers running tables in Brunswick, Harpswell, Lisbon and Richmond. It is sad to lose the time spent eating together, but the Perryman Village site is running a weekly raffle that encourages participation and a sense of community. The meals to-go method also gives us the opportunity to reach additional families who don’t have time to stop and eat or who wouldn’t have known about the program without the added visibility of the distribution table.
As we move into the fall and the start of an unconventional school year, the issue of child hunger will continue to be a focus of our programming. As schools prepare to reopen to varying degrees in the next few weeks, we are communicating closely with school counselors, social workers, and nurses to determine the best ways to get food to students. In more typical years, our main support to schools is through the School Pantry program, through which we deliver snacks and bags of food for kids that they pick up at school.
This year, MCHPP will still be providing the same food, but we will work with each school to adapt the distribution method based on their needs. The Lisbon school district is coming back in person, so students can pick up food when they come in for class, while MSAD 75 plans to deliver food on buses. As the school year unfolds, we will be prioritizing flexibility in the School Pantry program and following the lead of schools who understand their students’ needs best.
If you are interested in supporting MCHPP, donations of school snacks, diapers (sizes 4, 5, and 6), full-sized shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, and laundry soap would be greatly appreciated. For more information about volunteering or accessing our programs, visit mchpp.org.
Caroline Daigle is the program coordinator for Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program. Giving Voice is a weekly collaboration among four local non-profit service agencies to share information and stories about their work in the community.
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