BATH

She lost her job when the company she worked for in Lewiston let almost everyone go two years ago.

Her unemployment ran out in November. She moved in with friends in Bath, but wanted to keep active while she was looking for work.

Andrea, 58, qualifies for MaineCare and food stamps. But as an older, single woman with no dependent children, she receives less than $200 per month — those food stamps go to help the friends she is staying with; she has no money for rent or utilities.

“They took me in, no questions asked,” she said. “But they are on the edge, too, financially, and I just can’t ask them to support me for free.”

In line at the Bath Food Truck recently, Andrea said she was working hard but couldn’t find a paying job. So she volunteers for a number of organizations — including a public day care center and, until it closed, the clothing exchange bank — and hopes that one of those positions will turn into a paying job at some point.

On Tuesday, Andrea collected corn and broccoli and picked up a jar of peanut butter.

“The food stamp money is just not enough,” she said. “I’m trying to get some additional assistance, but it’s hard, because my kids are grown and a lot of programs are only for people with dependent children. Everyone else is expected to work.”

Her voice broke. “My problem is that nobody wants to hire a woman my age with the limitations I have.”

Andrea has breathing problems in hot weather, probably caused by heavy smoking in her youth, she admits.

She visits the Bath Area Food Bank twice a month — one of 150 patrons served every month. She used to go to the Bath Soup Kitchen once in a while. But that’s closed now, and she can’t afford the gas to go to Brunswick.

“The food truck has been a gift from God,” she said. “You get as much or more than you get from the food bank, and a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables.”

Andrea isn’t alone in having unmet food needs. Not even close.

Food by the numbers

Food insecurity is at an alltime high in the United States, and Mid-coast Maine is no exception.

One of the measures of food insecurity is the number of students who become eligible for school lunches.

In Brunswick, that number jumped from 32.4 percent to 36.5 percent from 2012 to 2013. In Lisbon, the number rose from 48.3 percent to 51.9 percent. In Sagadahoc County, the number rose from 41.8 percent to 42.7 percent, according to figures kept by the Department of Education, which administers the program.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 15 percent of Americans were “food insecure” at some point during 2011-12, while 5.7 percent had “very low food security,” meaning that adults and sometimes children skipped meals — up from 5.4 percent in 2010.

Food insecurity, essentially, is not knowing whether one will have enough food to get from one paycheck to the next, or until the next Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds become available each month.

In both Bath and Brunswick, demand for food pantry help has increased over the last few years. At the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, demand rose 10 percent from 2011 to 2012 after rising the same amount from 2010 to 2011.

Demand is holding steady this year, MCHPP Director Karen Parker says, though it hasn’t gone up appreciably.

In Bath, the figures reflect a generally growing population of people needing help, says Kimberly Gates of the Bath Area Food Bank, who said she’s seen seven additional families in the last few months.

Out of school, out of food

This year, in Bath and Brunswick, Freeport, Richmond and Lisbon, there are programs aimed at feeding children over the summer even though they aren’t in school.

The Bath Parks and Recreation Department operates the program with a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It also offers free lunch and breakfast to their day campers, both teens and children.

Breakfast is offered at Fisher Mitchell School for children ages 2-18 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A snack is offered at 2 to 3 p.m.; dinner from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., at the Bath Skate Park, Tuesday through Saturday. There is also lunch provided on Sunday at noon at the Skatepark, with a snack at 4 p.m.

In Brunswick, lunches are provided in two locations — at Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program at 84 Union St. from 1 to 2 p.m. and at Perryman Village in Cook’s Corner from noon to 1 p.m.

So far, Parker said the student feeding programs have been only lightly attended. The same was reported by the Bath Recreation Department, which runs the Bath sites.

“Good Shepherd Food Bank tells me it takes a couple of years to get the sites up and running,” Parker said. “People need to know that the sites are there, and are safe.”

In Brunswick, more than 700 children participate in the free or reduced lunch program, Parker says, so she knows the need is present.

What may help increase the numbers for next summer is a program negotiated with local schools for this school year to send 200 children home with a backpack filled with 5-6 pounds of nonperishable food every Friday.

That program will be unveiled Monday in Brunswick, with U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, in attendance.

Transportation problem

Getting to the sites of public food aid is a problem for many, Parker said.

As Meals on Wheels begins to feel the pinch from “sequestration,” Parker said she expects food insecurity to rise for people who cannot get out, including the elderly and disabled.

Using a grant by Elmina Sewall Foundation, the Brunswick Soup Kitchen is now open every Saturday, and the pantry will be open the same hours. “That should give people a chance to get here if they have only one car, or they are working during the regular hours,” she said.

A food delivery program for the homebound, currently called Reaching Elders, delivers boxes of food to people in need twice each month in Topsham and Brunswick. Thirty-five families are currently receiving food supplies through the program.

Community involvement

Normally the purview of churches and nonprofit organizations, there seems to be a tacit understanding that these sources are no longer enough. Most food drives occur from mid-November through Christmas, which leaves a long drought at the food banks through the rest of the winter, spring and summer.

Community involvement includes the Maine State Music Theatre’s food drive, held during its recent “Les Miserables” run. The theater collected $300 in cash and about 500 pounds of nonperishable food for the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program. The recent Ron Carroll and Friends’ garden tour brought MCHPP $2,400.

“That was huge,” Parker said. “Ron Carroll does this every year, and it’s always an amazing amount. People are very generous in our communities.”

Local farmers also donate leftover produce from Brunswick farmers markets to MCHPP. Many local merchants give outdated but still good sandwiches, pastries, bread and other goodies.

A “Neighbor Helping Neighbor” event planned for Aug. 17 at Bath’s Library Park from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. will benefit the Bath Food Bank — open on Tuesday and Friday, 5 to 7 p.m. — at the United Church of Christ on Congress Street.

They set their goal high — $10,000 — but event organizer Cathy Leonard says it’s achievable.

“We’re also collecting beauty and hair products from local salons,” she said. “One of the local salons challenged other salons in the area to encourage customers to donate salon products. That’s something that people who are using the food bank often need but can’t afford and would never buy for themselves.”

On July 30, Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s “Teen Ag” program teamed up with the Good Shepherd Food Bank to provide fresh, organic produce to low-income people in Bath. The food truck comes on the last Tuesday of every month, from 2 to 4 p.m.

The Teen Ag program allows teenagers to plan and run an organic farm at Erickson Fields Preserve in Rockport for an entire summer. The organic produce is sent to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, which distributes the food via truck outdoors. Students ride with the truck and get a chance to see where their produce goes, as well as a chance to help people in person.

The Rev. Michael Ambler, rector of the Grace Episcopal Church, said that — unlike food banks, which have residency requirements and income limits — the food truck program is open to anyone.

Grace Episcopal Church began to fund the truck, but soon, he said, the community embraced it and now the majority of the food is paid for by community funds.

“I love this ministry,” he said. “The thing I love most about the food truck is that the division between those who are serving and those who are being served is so porous. People who come to get food for their families ask to stay and help others; people who come as volunteers quietly pick up a box and gather some food for their own families.”

It also gives the church a chance to provide other services. For instance, in the fall, CHANS does a flu shot clinic. On a recent Tuesday, EfficiencyMaine was on hand to distribute free light bulbs.

Students from Morse High School and Hyde School come to help older folks, or families with small children carry the heavy boxes to their cars.

“It’s another way of making a connection,” Ambler said.

Soup kitchen crisis

Bath’s soup kitchen is currently on hiatus, and is scheduled to reopen on Sept. 4 — but only if a manager can be found.

So far, Kimberly Gates, who directs the food truck program at Grace Episcopal, said no one has stepped forward. The position at the soup kitchen is paid with a small stipend, she said.

The soup kitchen got a boost from the Bath City Council, which on Wednesday unanimously approved a new Planning Board rule allowing soup kitchens to open six hours per day rather than three, and striking down restrictions on delivery hours.

The loss of the soup kitchen at the Baptist Church on Elm Street is also somewhat mitigated by the opening of the Neighborhood Cafe at the United Church of Christ on Congress Street, open Tuesdays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. for a free meal.

For Andrea, and the 150 or so patrons of the food truck who waited in line in the sun on a recent Tuesday afternoon, these support services are critical.

“I don’t know where I would be if this help wasn’t available,” she said. “And I know I’m luckier than most of these people. I have a place to live with people who care about me, and my health isn’t too bad.

“But it seems to me that people who work their whole lives shouldn’t have to be wondering where their next meal is coming from. We’re a rich country, the richest in the world. Nobody should be hungry here.”