The first six months of 2014 have been a huge success for the Saco Meals Program. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the local business sponsors and many individuals who have been so generous in 2014 with monetary donations and gifts of time to help our program succeed. Without their assistance, Saco meals would not have been able to feed 2,800 guests and give out 5,000 meals.
We have several local businesses that not only support us with donations, but their employees volunteer their time cooking and serving our guests once a month. These businesses are Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution, Biddeford Savings Bank, Union Church at Biddeford Pool and American Medical Systems.
UNUM has a service grant that donates money to the Saco Meal Program for the hours their employees volunteer of their time, and for this we are thankful.
Other businesses that support our program are Hannaford of Kennebunk, Shaw’s, Reilly’s, Shield’s, York County Food Rescue, local farmers who generously bring in fresh fruits and vegetables during the summer months for our guests to enjoy, students from St. James School who periodically make bag lunches for our guests and the generosity of the Good Shepherd Parish.
We are staffed with dedicated volunteers, including a prep crew who come in to peel, cut and dice vegetables, fruit and anything else that needs to be done to help our cooks with the preparation of the evening meals. Additional volunteers pick up donated items from local merchants, to be placed on our giving table for our guests to take home.
We are grateful for our cooks, servers, dishwashers, cleanup crew, and high school students who are willing to do anything we ask of them. Our coordinators, who keep track of the volunteers, track the number of meals served each week, and make sure the program runs smoothly every Monday and Thursday. We’d also like to acknowledge volunteers taking care of the mail, sending thank-you notes to generous sponsors, taking care of a bank account and help from Good Shepherd Parish office personnel.
We must also give a special thank you to our board of directors, who are always there for support when we ask them; and to our guests who come each Monday and Thursday to be with friends, eat a hardy meal and take home items from our giving table.
To all these kind and generous people, plus any we may have forgotten, we want to say thank you for supporting our mission.
Virginia Kenney, on behalf of the Saco Meals Program
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
