When it comes to seeing the effects of rising prices for goods and services, food pantries are on the front lines. Nowhere is that more evident than in rural Washington County where the rate of food insecurity is the highest in New England. And the Trump administration's cuts to federal food programs are already forcing food pantries to make hard choices.
At the Machias Area Food Pantry, Amber Ross and her two daughters are bagging up their groceries. It’s almost an hour drive for the family to get here, Ross said, but it's a highlight for her young girls.
"It's nice being able to come here, because every once in a while, they have something that my kids would consider a treat," she said. "And so they have little gummies, they have little things that make it feel like I'm giving my kids something more than just the basics."
The family of six has been regularly coming to the pantry for about two years.
Ross said she's a stay-at-home mom and runs an online business. Even with her business and her husband's job, rising prices were stretching their monthly budget.
"When you can take a little bit of the load off the grocery budget, it's a lot easier to move it towards other things," Ross said.
As a state, Maine has the highest rate of food insecurity in New England. And according to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, Washington County has the highest rate of all counties in the region. About 18% of individuals and 27% of children are considered food insecure.
"So food insecurity means that you have either limited access or uncertain access to adequate food," said Robin McCarthy, chief advancement officer with Good Shepherd Food Bank.
"If you have a utility bill that's due that week, you might shop for groceries differently than if you don't, as opposed to when somebody is food secure, they have access to all the nutritious, healthy food that they want, and they don't have to make those tradeoffs," she said.
Those tradeoffs mean that food pantries are often the first to see the impacts of rising prices and program cuts across household budgets.
"We are definitely serving the working poor," said Ken Warner.
Warner and Nancy Lewis are the co-directors of the Machias Area Food Pantry. Warner said more than half of the pantry's clients are less than 50 years old and like those at other food pantries, many are employed.
"The budgets just don't stretch far enough," he said. "I mean, you know, you used to think $15 an hour you could live on, they can't live on $15 an hour, and that's about the top pay around here."
Lewis said new clients will sometimes say they never thought they'd have to go to the food pantry.
"A lot of people have to choose between whether they get their medication, pay the utility bill, pay the phone bill, or eat, and it's a very difficult decision for them," she said.
The pantry is now seeing about 180 households every week, and the number of meals served has almost doubled from last year. Because of the jump in need, Lewis said they have had to restrict services to residents from 11 nearby towns.
"So we've had to tell people that we'll give them a bag of food, we'll give them food for that day, but that they have to go to a pantry that is more local," she said.
In Calais, Dawn Noonan with the Irene Chadbourne Ecumenical Food Pantry said they have had to do the same thing.
"If they're not on the list, you can't do it," Noonan said. "We're able to, at some point, be able to give them a small amount, maybe two or three cans and they got families, and I hate saying I can't help you, but we can't, because we have to save the food here for our people."
Noonan said the pantry gets food directly from the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP. But that program has seen cuts, along with the amount of free food the pantry receives. Noonan used to refuse some foods that she knew might sit on the pantry shelves for a while. But now she's taking anything she can get, trying to prepare for more uncertainty.
"I don't know what's going to happen down the road," Noonan said. "I really do not know. I want to make sure we have enough food."
And she said she's been warning people to expect less.
The Calais and Machias pantries aren't alone in seeing more clients and less food. McCarthy of Good Shepherd said with more federal cuts going into effect in the coming months and years, she expects it will become more challenging.
"We'll see a steep increase in people who are not receiving SNAP and thus are they're going to need more from their food pantries," she said. "And at the same time, food pantries are struggling with the same thing that a lot of those families are food costs more and it's harder for them to get."
Ken Warner of the Machias Food Pantry said no matter what happens, his and other food pantries will be looking for ways to continue to help people.
"Because these folks need it," Warner said.
