There’s a sense of urgency at the Wayside Food Program loading dock on a recent morning. Volunteer workers use forklifts to pull pallets of boxes—1,661 pounds of food in all—from a Wayside van that’s just made its routine Thursday morning rounds, picking up “food rescue” donations from area markets like Hannaford and Target.
A small crew of volunteers scurry around the 8,000-square-foot warehouse, adding the newly delivered boxes to designated sections for produce, baked goods, and meats. About eight representatives from four area food pantries look on, waiting for the morning shopping session to officially begin.
At 9:30 a.m. sharp, Marcus blows the ritual forklift horn. It’s not unlike the 9:30 a.m. bell that marks the start of the trading day at the New York Stock Exchange. But instead of traders shouting and waving their arms, the shoppers hustle boxes of food to their pantries’ reserved pallets. They’ll be done shopping in under 15 minutes, their vehicles loaded up within an hour.
Kim Munro, resident service coordinator for the senior residents at 100 State Street, a Portland Housing Authority property, loads her pallet with crates of cauliflower, fresh fennel, and baby ginger root, with an eye toward the new immigrants she serves.
“My new Mainers are going to be thrilled by these,” she said.
The shoppers can choose from about 15,000 pounds of free food this day, but only about 400 pounds of meat. Deb Alonzo, director of the Vineyard Church of Greater Portland Food Pantry in Westbrook, considered herself lucky to score a box of frozen sausages, chicken breasts, and Steak-umms.
“A year ago, we used to give the clients six packages of meat a week. Now we’re lucky if we give them two,” said Alonzo, who will take about 2,000 pounds of food back to the 70 families the Vineyard serves.
Still, the shoppers gladly take what they can get. They recognize that with Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits being slashed and grocery prices on the rise, a growing number of Mainers will turn to food pantries for help this fall and winter.
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### Generous Donations Help Meet Growing Demand
People running Maine’s food pantries feel confident they’ll be able to meet the increased demand, thanks in large part to the sizable regular food donations they receive from Maine markets, bakeries, farms, and fishermen.
“The farmers and the markets are so generous. They’re really aware of the need,” said Marion Nielsen of North Windham, a volunteer and former board member of Wayside. “This program would not be able to continue as it does if we didn’t have all these places giving to us.”
“We wouldn’t exist without the food rescue,” said Wayside operations manager Don Morrison.
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### Dependent on Markets
As a distribution hub for more than 60 Maine food pantries and soup kitchens, Wayside depends on the kindness of retailers and wholesalers, whose donations usually account for about half the food they receive each month.
In September, Wayside took in 115,579 pounds of food from regional supermarkets like Hannaford and Shaw’s; national chains like BJ’s Wholesale Club, Costco, Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods; and the restaurant wholesaler Sysco.
“We understand the responsibility we have in supporting our communities, which is why we have a very robust food donation program,” said Caitlin Cortelyou, external communications manager for Hannaford supermarkets. Last year, Hannaford donated 13 million pounds of food to Maine food programs.
Wayside has also received more than 40,000 pounds of surplus produce from Farms for Food Equity in Cape Elizabeth and counts on thousands of pounds of frozen fish each week from the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.
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### What is Food Rescue?
Wayside’s food rescue program collects donated food that is unsellable but completely safe and nutritious to eat and would otherwise go to waste. The program directed about 1.7 million pounds of food to Mainers in need last year, according to Wayside’s 2024 impact report.
The rescued food includes:
– Past-peak or misshapen produce
– Dairy and packaged foods nearing their expiration dates
– Canned or boxed products that are damaged but still sealed
– Cartons of eggs with one or two broken shells
– Day-old breads
– Meats that have reached their use-or-freeze-by dates and are frozen before donation
Bruce Willson, co-director of the Hope House Network in Lewiston, said a little more than half of the food his pantry distributes comes from retailers like Target and Shaw’s. If his pantry lines grow longer in the coming months, he still expects to be able to serve everyone.
“The supply is good right now,” he said. “If we didn’t have Target to get a big variety of food items, especially the meat they donate, it’d be a lot tougher.”
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### Meat Supply Challenges
Meat is in shortest supply for food pantries these days. Morrison believes the rising cost has led supermarkets to stock less of it to avoid waste.
Pantries don’t tend to look to restaurants for donations because, as Morrison points out, savvy chefs repurpose their leftovers.
“Saturday’s stir-fry special was Friday night’s prime rib,” he said. “Any restaurant that is throwing away enough food for me to come pick it up, they’re probably not going to be in business long.”
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### Private Donations Augment Meat Supply
Private donations help augment the meat supply. Sandy Swett, executive director of the Harrison Food Bank, which serves about 1,000 rural Maine families a week, said an anonymous donor buys livestock every year at auction, has them butchered in Windham, and donates all the meat.
This year, the donor bought two cows, six pigs, and six lambs.
“That’s a lot of meat,” Swett said.
Market anomalies sometimes prove to be a boon.
“During the egg shortage last winter, we were flush with eggs,” said Harrison Otterbein, president at St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen, the state’s largest soup kitchen. “Stores were buying as much as they could, they were way too expensive, and they were expiring.”
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### Benefits from Supermarket Display Practices
Pantries and soup kitchens can also benefit from supermarket display strategies.
“Grocery stores pre-slicing deli meats was the best thing that ever happened to us,” Otterbein said. “They have a mandate to keep the shelves flush with product because it’s visually appealing,” he added. “But at the same time, the food needs to be safe. So they cycle out a lot of it, which helps us make thousands of sandwiches every week.”
Otterbein’s kitchen serves more than 200 people a day, up about 25% in the last 18 months. When they first opened in 1972, they fed just 16 people daily.
Still, Otterbein says St. Vincent’s will be able to meet any increased need, thanks to “tremendously helpful” retail donations, substantial reserves, and a growing volunteer base.
“We are able to weather any storm for the next two or three years.”
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### “Nobody Should Go Hungry”
Local markets also offer substantial support for Maine food pantries. Rosemont Market & Bakery last year donated more than 13,000 pounds of produce, prepared foods, and baked goods to the Good Shepherd Food Bank network, for instance.
Rosemont Marketing Director Finn Naylor said that each night, the six Rosemont locations around Greater Portland sort through their inventory for edible but unattractive produce, prepared food that’s reached its sell-by date, and day-old bread. They deliver the food to Rosemont’s headquarters on Stevens Avenue, where it’s picked up throughout the week by the Locker Project, the South Portland Food Pantry, and The Root Cellar.
Around the holidays, Rosemont also donates surplus fresh turkeys to Wayside.
“It feels like quality food should go to everyone, no matter what they’re experiencing in their lives,” Naylor said. “This way we can share what we’re making here.”
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### Support from Local Bakeries
Peter McNamara, director of operations at the South Portland Food Cupboard, said about 20% of his food donations come from local bakeries like The Cookie Jar in Cape Elizabeth, Night Moves Bread in South Portland, and Scratch Baking Co.
Morrison said artisanal bread doesn’t always work well for donations because it doesn’t contain preservatives and molds quicker than mass-produced loaves. But Night Moves baker-owner Kerry Hanney said her dough undergoes a slow-fermentation process that keeps the bread fresh longer.
“I know it will still be good for many days if we’re able to get it to people as soon as possible, so we really try to prioritize that,” Hanney said.
Pantries can only accept baked goods that are packaged or wrapped, so Hanney covers her donated loaves in plastic wrap or paper. She said the packaging requirement can be a barrier for some smaller businesses that would like to donate but can’t spare the added time or expense.
“It’s easier for a larger business like Hannaford to send packaged foods,” she said. “Money adds up in this industry, we’re always fighting time and costs. But overall, it’s a pretty small cost to make sure the food gets to somebody, in my opinion.
“I can’t imagine wasting this good food,” she said. “Knowing it can have another life to sustain others in our community feels like it’s a necessary part of our process. We have enough food in Maine—nobody should be going hungry. If there’s anything we can do to contribute, I think we have to.”
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/10/18/maine-food-pantries-weathering-funding-cuts-with-help-from-retailers/
