Community Table Soup Kitchen, Strong

The Rev. Mike Senecal and his volunteers feed 75 people a night during the last week of every month, drawing from Farmington, Phillips and New Vineyard. About 80 percent of what they serve comes from the food bank.

“If it wasn’t for Good Shepherd, we wouldn’t be able to do it,” Senecal said.

He shops the warehouse shelves twice a month. The free food — day-old bread and produce — accounts for one-third of what he loads into a pickup and trailer. Volunteers plan the menu around whatever else he finds, serving soup to dessert. Senecal once stumbled on lobster bisque among the haphazard offerings.

“The (food bank) people are absolutely spectacular,” he said. “Everybody’s always upbeat. They go out of their way to be helpful.”

Bridge Crossing, an NFI North group home, Bridgton

On a Wednesday morning in early June, Assistant Director Amy Siebert headed straight for Good Shepherd’s freezer, grabbing a big ham, lunch meat, sausage, pulled pork — a big cart of meat for 16 cents a pound. She has stopped by once a month for at least 10 years and plans three meals a day for up to 17 people between kids and staff.

“I look for things that would be super-expensive for us to purchase on a regular basis,” Siebert said.

Her food budget “gets chopped all the time.” Good Shepherd makes it go further. She estimated spending $200 in the single trip on $1,000 worth of food.

“Today’s a doozy of a snack day here,” she said. The shelves held nothing of interest.

DEW Animal Kingdom and Sanctuary, Mount Vernon

Co-founder Julie Miner said the sanctuary became one of Good Shepherd’s 600-plus member agencies two years ago after it became a registered nonprofit.

Three bears eat dog food. Primates and tortoises eat fruits and vegetables. Pigs raised for meat eat anything really rank.

“We buy our dog and cat food through them, a ton of it — probably literally a ton,” Miner said.

Twice a month she picks up 60 to 90 boxes filled with pet food bags that ripped at the grocery store and get sent along to the food bank with people food. They pay 8 cents a pound.

“You wouldn’t believe it. It’s perfectly fine, just the bags are open,” she said.

In March, after they’ve woken up, each bear eats about 5 pounds of dog food a day, Miner said. “By October, they’re really pounding it.”

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