Local food pantries across Franklin County are working hard to provide relief as the power remains off for much of Western Maine.
Allie Burke is the executive director of the River Valley Healthy Community Coalition, which operates the Old School Food Pantry in Mexico. Because RSU 10 has been closed since Monday, Burke says the school district donated a truckload of food to the pantry.
"This is the most amount of food I think I’ve ever seen that we’ve gotten at the pantry," said Burke. "We have an abundance of food that needs to move. I just [made] a post on our Facebook page encouraging people to come and get food because it’s gonna go bad if it doesn’t [get picked up on Wednesday]."
"We normally are open Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 to 11am," said Dave Bean, the executive director for the Bethel Area Food Pantry. "But with no lights, it's not really safe to have people to have the general public in the building because the whole building is 5600 sq. ft. You kind of need to use a flashlight to see everything [inside]."
Bean says a generator he brought from home is powering the freezers and produce coolers. However, he's had to turn people away because the lights remain unpowered.
Bean believes the power will return by Thursday morning — at which point the pantry will remain open even on its off days to allow people to stock up.
Old School Food Pantry is open Wednesday from 3-to-6 pm. Its address is 3 Recreational Drive in Mexico.
