Feeding Maine Youth
Bringing Healthy Food & Nutrition Education to Maine Children
Throughout the past several years, childhood hunger has become a more and more prevalent issue throughout the state of Maine. Currently, nearly 70,000 Maine children are food insecure, meaning their families don't always know how they will get the child's next meal or if it will be enough food for them. Maine has the highest childhood food insecurity rate in all of New England, with 1 in 4 kids in the state suffering the effects of food insecurity.
Our Feeding Maine Youth initiatives focus on meeting the nutritional needs of children in times when they need it most. The following programs are specifically created to help fill gaps when school provided meals are not available, such as weekends, school vacations, summertime, and after school.
BackPack Program: The mission of the BackPack Program is to help alleviate child hunger by providing children in need with nutritious and easy-to-prepare food during weekends and school vacations. The BackPack Program is operated in partnership with the Junior League of Portland.
Kids Café Program: Kids Cafés provide free meals and snacks to low-income children through existing community locations where children congregate. In addition to providing meals to hungry kids, Kids Cafes also offer a safe place, where under the supervision of trustworthy staff, a child can get involved in educational, recreational and social activities.
Summer Food Service Program: The Summer Food Service Program is a federal nutrition program that was instituted to ensure that low-income children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session. Good Shepherd Food Bank will sponsor four feeding sites beginning in the Summer of 2012.