Pictured are volunteers at the Sweden Food Pantry, with Director Linda Bradley second from the right. Contributed / Sweden Food Pantry

The Sweden Food Pantry is partnering with Bridgton’s Hannaford as part of the grocery store’s $2.50 Fight Hunger Bag Program. Through this program, for every $2.50 reusable Fight Hunger Bag purchased at Hannaford, the food pantry will receive $1 throughout the month of January.

Hannaford has been helping many New England communities fight hunger through its Hannaford Helps program since 2007. In addition to the bag program, Hannaford also runs the Bloomin’ 4 Good program, which similarly donates a dollar to various charities with purchases of a bouquet of flowers.

This is the second time that Sweden Food Pantry has taken part in this program, the first being in March 2023. Food pantry Director Linda Bradley recalled that the first time the pantry took part, it received a total of $141. Bradley noted that the pantry’s partnership with Hannaford extends beyond these two month-long partnerships, as the grocery store serves as the main location for SFP, among other pantries, to pick up food.

The food pantry serves the rural communities of Bridgton, Harrison, Fryeburg, Lovell, Stoneham, Stow, Sweden and Waterford, with 35-40 families coming each time the pantry is open. While no one is turned away, Bradley said, federal guidelines require that participants be 200% below the federal poverty line – however independent food banks like SFP are allowed to set their own guidelines. Most people who come to SFP are far below the threshold, she said.

In distributing food to people who need it, Bradley said, they “have an open shopping model, which (SFP feels) is the one that treats people with the most respect and dignity, because they get to choose which products they want and how many they want of each.”

The only limited items at the pantry, Bradley noted, are meat and fish, as well as hygiene and cleaning products, which she said is mainly due to supply issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a particularly trying time for Sweden Food Pantry. The pantry was forced to operate on a drive-through model, giving people boxes to go. At that time, it was serving up to 60 families, varying in size from one to six people. However, Bradley noted that people didn’t take advantage of the pantry offerings. She said that several people stopped coming to the food bank after receiving stimulus checks that gave them the money that they needed to purchase food, and several people also donated part of their checks to help support the food pantry.

During that time, the food pantry also received a great deal of support from the Bridgton-Lake Region Rotary Club. According to Rotarian Carol Madsen, who has been serving on the board of Sweden Food Pantry for more than a decade, the Rotary Club was very active during the pandemic in supporting food pantries, regularly meeting with organizers through Zoom. They got a grant from the Rotary district to do health and wellness packages for all of the food pantries in the area. Although Madsen said that her work with both the Rotary Club and the food pantry was mostly coincidental, the former organization strives to support local food pantries whenever possible.

“It was really the pandemic that made us step up,” Madsen said of the Rotary Club’s efforts.

The Sweden Food Pantry is open on the first and third Wednesdays of each month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 137 North Bridgton Road in Sweden, and can be reached at 647-5735.