The food pantries of Washington County are preparing for a reduction in the amount of produce from Good Shepherd Food Bank’s deliveries as a result of cuts to the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), with some pantries expecting a drop of 50% or more in their shipments beginning in April.
      “We’ll only receive about half of the free food we received last year,” says Ken Warner of the Machias Food Pantry. Last year, Good Shepherd provided 80 tons of produce to the pantry, meaning this year it will be approximately 40 tons less. “That’s painful. We would be able to overcome the loss of the cans and the dried goods, but it’s the proteins that we will be missing.” Warner estimates that the cuts will reduce the pantry’s meat shipments by approximately five tons, with the overall monetary loss of the cuts around $100,000.
      Even prior to the cuts, the pantry was contending with a client increase of approximately 50% over the previous year as a result of accumulating cost of living expenses. Around 700 people now visit the pantry each week.
      The LFPA, which began in 2021 as a program to buy produce from farmers and distribute it to food banks, was cut by $500 million in March. Of that amount, $1.25 million would have gone to Good Shepherd, with a projected loss of 300 tons of produce to Maine’s food pantries, according to a statement from the agency. TEFAP began in 1981 and similarly buys and distributes produce from regional farmers. Half of its federal funding – $500 million – has been paused with no indicators if it will be resumed. In Maine, that equates to a loss of 125 tons a month in produce for the hungry, with some pantries advised to prepare for a drop of 65% in their shipments starting in April.
      It’s possible that the situation could change in the future, but Nancy Lewis, who also manages the Machias Food Pantry, isn’t optimistic that relief will come soon. “Nobody knows how long this will last. We’ve been told to prepare through June, but no one knows what will happen after June, either.”
      In the meantime, the Machias pantry is limiting its clients to the nine towns within its region – Bucks Harbor, Cutler, East Machias, Jonesboro, Machias, Machiasport, Marshfield, Northfield, Roque Bluffs, Wesley and Whitneyville – although Lewis is quick to say that no one who comes to the pantry hungry will be turned away. “Everyone who comes to us will get a bag of food, but if they aren’t from our area, we will direct them to pantries closer to their home.”
      In Lubec, the pantry offered by Lubec Community Outreach Center (LCOC) assists 150 area households. Director Jennifer Bristol is expecting that the cuts will cost the pantry approximately $7,000 a year, which they are currently determining fundraising methods to make up for the loss. “The LCOC purchases the majority of food for our pantry using grants and fundraising,” Bristol says. “As always, we will do as much as we can, the best that we can and for as long as we can.”
      The Labor of Love in Eastport assists approximately 115 households each month and will similarly be impacted by the cuts, says pantry President Madeline Murphy. While the shipment at the start of the month was normal, she says she and manager Lindy McLellan will know more when the next shipment comes. “[That] will be our first opportunity to collect hard data for ourselves.”
      Murphy and McLellan are among the pantry managers actively attending meetings organized by Good Shepherd and Healthy Acadia to “find out what we can do as partners in Maine” and learn “more about what we can expect going forward,” Murphy says. “For now, we have been receiving generous donations of canned and boxed goods from our local churches in Eastport, Perry, Pembroke and Dennysville.”
      The Machias pantry has also seen the local community step up, with a recent donation of a ton of potatoes, Warner says. “That is such a staple. In the midst of all this, someone comes through with a donation of one ton of something we desperately need.” He adds, “We’re forever hopeful that things will be fine because our neighbors help each other.”
      Donations will be a critical component for food pantries to function, Warner says, adding, “People looking to help the pantry out should know that their dollar to us will buy more than they can buy at the store. If a person planned to give $5 to $10 worth of food to us, and they gave us the money instead, we could do more with it.” As an example, Warner says that ground meat that costs $4 at the store can be purchased by the pantry for $2.75. How to make donations to any of the area food pantries can be found online.
      “We don’t want people to panic,” Warner says. “We’re not closing tomorrow. We don’t plan to reduce days of service. We may have fewer items to offer, but we’ll still have items.”