Impact Report: Your Investment in the Campaign to End Hunger in Maine

IMPACT REPORT:

Your Investment in the Campaign to End Hunger in Maine Thank you for helping us reach new heights in the fight against hunger.

Our path to the Campaign to End Hunger in Maine began in 2015, when after an extensive strategic planning process, the Food Bank created a bold goal that would inform our work in the decade to follow: by 2025 all food insecure Mainers will have access to the nutritious, culturally relevant food they need, when and where they need it. With this goal, we sought to help stabilize the lives of the people we serve, reduce the impact of hunger in our state, and make Maine a stronger, more resilient place to work and live.

We knew that in order to meet our bold goal, we would need to pair visionary planning and collaboration with an unprecedented level of support. After determining our tactics, we set out to raise $250 million in a combination of donated food and funds in the Campaign to End Hunger.

The campaign’s overarching goal was to close Maine’s meal gap through both immediate interventions and long-term strategies. With you by our side and together with our network of over 600 food access partners, the Food Bank successfully built the capacity and scale needed to close Maine’s meal gap in 2023 for the first time in our 40+ year history.

Within this report, we’ve featured a few of the many impacts and strategies that helped us reach a conclusion to the campaign in June 2023. We’re grateful for your partnership and the network of people, organizations, and corporations that helped make this possible.

Progress in Closing Maine’s Meal Gap

Meal Gap

15.8M

8.7M

33.6M

24.8M 19.2M Meals Distributed FY15

FY19

FY23

*The Meal Gap, determined annually by Feeding America based on data from the USDA, is defined as the number of meals missing from households after accounting for food purchased with individual resources or accessed through the federal safety net.

We are proud to share what we accomplished, knowing this is not the end but a powerful demonstration of what we can achieve when we work together toward transformational goals.

Thank you for being on this journey with us.

Your collective impact 50,000+ donors

contributing to the success of the campaign

$105M in funds

raised towards the $100M goal

$162M in donated food

raised towards the $150M goal

Partnership in Action: Yo The Campaign to End Hunger had four key priorities and areas of impact:

Buildin

Increase Access to More Nutritious and Culturally Relevant Foods •

Distributed a record 120 million meals over four years through the charitable food network, with 80% of those meals being nutritious whole grains, lean protein, fresh fruits, and vegetables.

•

Expanded our supply chain to include a new, 32,000 sq ft distribution center in Hampden while our partner network grew to include more community-based food pantries, meal sites, health care centers, senior programs and schools - from head starts to universities.

•

Granted a total of $12.7 million directly to partners to grow distribution, which led to an average growth of almost 570 percent and nearly 7.5 million more meals distributed by grantees.

Advocate and Ensure Equity •

Collaborated to advocate for free breakfast and lunch for all Maine students and additional funding for Meals on Wheels and SNAP benefits.

•

Awarded more than $2.2 million to over 65 organizations led by and serving BIPOC communities. Bangor and Westbrook School Departments used funding to incorporate culturally relevant options like halal meat into school lunches.

Invest in Innovative Solutions •

•

Partnered on innovations spurred by COVID-19, including drivethru and home delivery models statewide. Winslow Community Cupboard created a menu system to ensure neighbors were able to maintain the important ability to choose food for their families.

Expanded partnerships with doctors offices and health centers throughout Maine, including Southern Maine Medical Center which provides patients with “prescriptions” for nutritious foods, within their locations in Biddeford and Sanford.

Build a Safety Net •

Invested over $8 million in our board-restricted endowment to ensure that the organization can continue to innovate sustainably in times of diminished resources or increased community needs.

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“We look out for each other here and it’s amazing how the community pulls together to help everybody when they need it most.”

Jamie is a regular visitor to her local food pantry, Harmony Cares, and depends on the variety of fresh, nutritious foods to support her and her family. Jamie is battling cancer and has specific nutritional needs, so she especially appreciates how much choice she has in what food she receives. “The nice thing is they let you pick what you want because half the things in there, I can’t eat.”

As a result of our key campaign strategy to build capacity and resilience for our network of partners, in December of 2023 when widespread power outages rocked the state, Harmony Cares was one of several pantries whose operations were uninterrupted, thanks in part to generators purchased with grant funding from the Food Bank. These grants allow partners to continue meeting the needs of their communities, so people like Jamie are able to access the food they need when they need it most.

Over four years, we distributed 120 million meals, including:

80%

highly nutritious foods Over 10 million pounds of fresh, Maine-grown produce

ar Food for All

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2.5 million

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Over 600,000

pounds of culturally relevant foods Batula shows off some of her harvest. She takes pride in not only bringing the community together with food but also providing opportunities for aspiring farmers.

Almost 140,000

pounds of halal meat

Investing in the Agricultural Economy Funds from the Campaign to End Hunger helped to launch Harvesting Good in fall of 2022. The for-profit public benefit corporation produces frozen broccoli from a farm in Caribou, which is then frozen, packaged, and distributed by partners in Orland and Cherryfield. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine and, once profitable, 100 percent of profits will benefit food banks in the Northeast.

Now found in Hannaford Supermarkets across the state and beyond, Harvesting Good is helping to increase access to healthy, nourishing food for all Mainers while investing in the agricultural economy to support local businesses and create jobs that reduce food insecurity at its root cause.

“Harvesting Good is a revolutionary business model that aligns food banks, regional farmers and processors, local retailers, and consumers to ensure local, nutritious vegetables are available to feed our neighbors the whole year through.”

- Matt Chin, president of Harvesting Good

Creating a Future Where All Mainers are Food Secure, Together From the local student who needs nutritious food to fuel their day, to the older Mainer who is juggling the costs of prescriptions, rent, and healthy meals, your generosity makes a significant impact in the lives of people across the state. Collectively, we can be proud of the progress we’ve made to ensure Mainers aren’t experiencing hunger day-to-day.

Over the course of the campaign, as we’ve increased our scope and scale and distributed a record number of meals, we’ve deepened our understanding that while closing the meal gap may meet the urgent need neighbors are experiencing today, it cannot ensure that all Mainers will have enough food next week, next month, or next year.

demographic, and geographic lines. So, while we are distributing more meals than ever, we must ensure the unique needs of individual communities are met.

There is still work to do to ensure that every Mainer has access to the nutritious and culturally relevant food we all need to thrive, especially in the face of record inflation, soaring prices, and the expiration of pandemic-era public benefits that helped reduce rates of hunger to the lowest level in more than 20 years.

By building on the momentum from the campaign, we will continue to invest in solutions, partnerships, people, and communities for a future where all Mainers are food secure.

We’ve also learned that populations experience hunger differently across racial, AUBURN 3121 Hotel Road, Auburn, ME 04211 HAMPDEN 11 Penobscot Meadow Drive, Hampden, ME 04444 (207) 782-3554 www.FeedingMaine.org/campaign MEMBER OF