FARMINGTON – Imagine a school bus full of food to help those in need in the region to celebrate Thanksgiving with a hearty meal.
Representatives of United Way of the Tri-Valley Area and Western Maine Transportation Services have joined together to do a major food drive.
“Our goal is to fill a school bus full of food for the Thanksgiving holiday,” United Way Executive Director Nancy Morgan said Monday.
The government is expected to give only half as much food to 10 food pantries in the greater Franklin County area this year as last year, she said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave approximately 2,000 cases of food to the pantries last November, Morgan said. The projection for this November is about 1,000 cases, mainly due to demands of disasters in other parts of the country and overseas, she said.
“We’re hoping to be able to give at least one turkey to each pantry and provide 20 extra Thanksgiving baskets on top of what they put together,” Morgan said.
She said that with high costs of fuel for travel and heating homes, joblessness and medical coverage costs, people will need some extra help this year.
“We want to help them,” she said. “We’re trying to reach out and touch people in a positive manner that will put smiles on people’s faces and give them a good holiday.”
Organizers don’t want people to have to make choices between eating, filling prescriptions or heating their homes, she said.
The bus’s routes
• Starting at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, through 8 a.m., Friday, Nov. 4, the school bus will be parked at the main gate at International Paper’s Androscoggin Mill on Riley Road in Jay.
• At 8 a.m., Friday, Nov. 4, it then goes to Otis Federal Credit Union on Main Street in Jay, where it will pick up a box of food that employees there put together.
• Then, still on Friday, the bus will travel to Farmington to be parked at the municipal parking lot off Main Street and Broadway behind the Farmington post office between 9 to 10 a.m.
• It will be in the Hannaford parking lot from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. Friday, in Wal-Mart’s parking lot from 11:25 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. that day, and at the Save-A-Lot parking lot from 12:35 to 1:45 p.m.
The food will be taken to the Care and Share Food Closet in Fairbanks and divided and distributed to food pantries on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Pantries benefiting from the project will be: Care and Share Food Closet in Farmington, Wilton Area Food Pantry, Clearwater Ministry Food Pantry in Industry, Town of Carthage Food Bank, Phillips Shared Ministry Food Bank, United Methodist Economical Ministry Food Bank in Salem Township, Stratton/Eustis Food Pantry, Tri-Town Ministerial Food Pantry in Livermore Falls, Abused Women Advocacy Program in Farmington and Church of Good Shepherd in Rangeley.
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