LEWISTON

Credit union’s $500 gift will assist food pantry

Community Credit Union recently presented the St. Mary’s Food Pantry with a $500 check to provide meals for more than 580 people who rely on the pantry each week for supplemental food provisions.

In 2016, 11,510 boxes of food provided enough healthy items for two-day emergency relief for 30,340 people, up nearly 35 percent from 2015. The pantry is at 208 Bates St.

For more information, go to www.communitycreditunion.com.

PORTLAND

Former MECA professor wins teaching award

The Maine College of Art and the National Marine Educators Association announced that Doug Vollmer, former assistant professor in academic studies at MECA, is the recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Teacher Award for his innovative classroom teaching style, decades of dedication to his work, and passion for teaching coastal science.

Vollmer has taught for 60 years, and for the past 40 has inspired and educated MECA students as a professor of biology until he retired in 2016. He continues to be a passionate advocate for the preservation of the natural world.

NORTH WATERBORO

Grants to help fund work on 1806 meetinghouse

The Elder Grey Meeting House-Cemetery Association has received a $7,500 grant from the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust and a $5,000 grant from the Narragansett Number One Foundation.

These grants will be used for the first phase of planned restoration work on the 1806 meeting house on Chadbourne Ridge Road.

The targeted fundraising total is $29,000.

For more details, go to www.eldergrey.org.

AUBURN

Food bank nabs $100,000 of $1 million hunger effort

BJ’s Wholesale Club has donated $100,000 to the Good Shepherd Food Bank to expand its capacity to store and distribute fresh, healthy food to families in need across Maine.

The grant is part of BJ’s Charitable Foundation’s $1 million donation to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger- relief organization.

The funding will help Good Shepherd Food Bank purchase a refrigerated box truck for its partner, Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, increasing the volume of its perishable-food distribution by 40 percent.

Also, Good Shepherd Food Bank will use the BJ’s grant to expand its agency partners’ cold storage capacity, which will allow significantly greater amounts of food to be donated and distributed in high-need areas.

To learn more about Good Shepherd Food Bank, visit GSFB.org.