Help On The Way For Maine Food Pantries

PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER) -- The United Way of Greater Portland has teamed up with the Preble Street Resource Center to raise 275-thousand dollars to replenish the shelves of food pantries statewide.

It's called Food For ME. A number of corporate sponsors have made generous donations, says the United Way's Meg Baxter. They include the King Foundation, the Fisher Foundation, L.L. Bean, the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, TD Bank Charitable Foundation and the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

Food pantries are experiencing a "perfect storm" of problems. While individual donations are down, so is the amount of food donated by the government's USDA surplus program and by the food industry itself which is now more efficient at controlling waste.

The $275,000 will be distributed to food pantries statewide through the ten United Way offices in Maine.

Both Meg Baxter and Mark Swann of the Preble Street Resource Center say they hope to raise more money over the coming months for the Food For ME program.