Teri Hoxie was homeless and living in her car before she accessed food and housing assistance through Footprints Food Pantry and Fair Tide, agencies that are now part of a new social services hub in Kittery called Mainspring. She and her daughter Rainlyn moved into their apartment four years ago and Hoxie continues to go to the food pantry when she needs assistance. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

KITTERY — When Teri Hoxie was homeless and sleeping in her car behind a highway rest stop, she didn’t think anyone could help. She felt isolated and alone.

For more than three years, she worried constantly about how to get food, how to care for her children, how to stay safe. But then she found the Footprints food pantry in Kittery, where she connected with people who pointed her toward housing assistance.

“The food assistance that came out of the food pantry helped stabilize me significantly. Accessing housing help stabilize me even more,” said Hoxie, 39, who has since moved into an apartment and started her own 3-D printing business.

The leaders of a new community resources hub in Kittery hope that bringing the resources that Hoxie depended on together under one roof will make it easier.

Mainspring, a new community resource hub that brings together agencies that address housing, food insecurity and other needs, is opening after several years of planning and a capital campaign that raised more than $6 million for the facility’s design and construction. It is founded by Fair Tide, an affordable housing agency, and Footprints, which addresses food insecurity.

Emily Flinkstrom, co-founder of Mainspring and Fair Tide’s executive director, said the idea came from conversations with Footprints Executive Director Megan Shapiro-Ross about how to better assist people in southern York County and seacoast New Hampshire, where 10% of people live below the poverty line and nearly 9% of residents are food insecure. In York County, 40% of residents struggle to afford basic necessities, according to the United Way.

“There are multiple entry points into our very complicated and fragmented social service system, but it’s really hard to know where those are and it’s really hard to know if you’re eligible,” Flinkstrom said. “And then once you’re in, it’s even more difficult to get from one (agency) to another.”

Items at the Fair Tide thrift shop in the new Mainspring social services hub that opens this week in Kittery on Feb. 5. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

Mainspring is intended to be a one-stop shop for social services, while also creating a place for the community to gather in a way that restores dignity and breaks down stigmas.

In addition to Footprints and Fair Tide, the Shapleigh Road building will also house an outreach worker from York County Community Action Corp. Other partners will hold regular hours at the hub, including Pine Tree Legal, Southern Maine Agency on Aging, MaineHealth and the Triangle Club, which offers peer recovery support. Volunteers of America Northern New England will offer veteran services, and daytime classes will be hosted by the local adult education program.

The money needed to create Mainspring was raised through a capital campaign that has nearly reached its $6.3 million goal. York County commissioners allocated $750,000 from American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project and $1 million came from federal funds. The towns of Kittery and Eliot gave money to the project and gifts from $5 to $1 million came from individuals and businesses.

“The fact that we raised that much money in a relatively short period of time speaks to the trust that people have in our community and what we’re doing, and the belief that this is needed,” Flinkstrom said.

‘IT RESTORED THEIR DIGNITY’

Some of the services offered at Mainspring won’t be fully in place until next month, but Fair Tide’s thrift store opens this weekend with a community grand opening celebration.

Footprints, which previously operated out of the garage of an old mechanic shop, opened in its new space in January and has already seen an uptick in people coming in for food. Even before it opened in the new space, the need for food assistance in the region was obvious: Over the past year, Footprints has seen a 67% increase in households served. In just the last three weeks, 47 new households have come to the market.

Megan Shapiro-Ross, left, and Emily Flinkstrom co-founders of the new Mainspring social services hub that opens this week in Kittery. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

Inside, a table is covered with bins of produce and shelves are neatly stacked with cans and boxes of food. Behind the deli counter, coolers are stocked with eggs, milk and meat. A play area for children, complete with tiny aprons, is tucked in one corner. Outside, refrigerated lockers will be used for grocery orders for people who can’t get to the market during the day.

The market is open five days a week and operates on an abundance model, Shapiro-Ross said. People can come in as often as they need and are free to shop for the groceries they need without limits on certain items.

“We’ve seen tears because there are grocery carts now,” Shapiro-Ross said. “It’s restored their dignity in shopping.”

Shapiro-Ross said Footprints’ offerings go far beyond basic groceries. Footprints has merged with Table of Plenty and will offer a community supper cooked in the new commercial kitchen on Thursday nights. Two days a week, the market will open as a breakfast cafe to mitigate social isolation and reduce the stigma of walking into the building, she said. Footprints is also planning to offer cooking and nutrition classes and will launch a culinary job training program.

REDUCING BARRIERS

While the idea of co-locating nonprofits in one space is not new, Mainspring will use a new centralized intake system that leaders hope will reduce barriers to services. With the new system, people will share their situation once — a process that can be traumatizing to repeat again and again, Flinkstrom said — while allowing agencies to share case management and collect data to help them better address the root causes of poverty in the community.

The new Mainspring social services hub opens this week in Kittery. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

Shapiro-Ross believes this method will help change a system that can be overwhelming and “is set up where the individuals are to blame for their own situations.”

“It’s them and them alone. Most families are trying to get to the food pantry during open hours or to the housing office or to their WIC appointment while also raising families and working a job or two,” she said.

Hoxie, who still goes to Footprints occasionally, hopes the new model will help others more easily access the resources that she struggled to find.

“I really did go from feeling super overwhelmed and super isolated to bit by bit bringing normalcy back into my life,” she said.