REGION — The Franklin County community continues to address hunger during the coronavirus pandemic through donations, fundraisers and home delivery food programs. Food pantries report less than expected clients since March and partly contribute this to an increase in food-related charity efforts.

“It isn’t what I expected it to be, but on the other hand, you have to consider that there’s an awful lot of food being given out in different places now,” Food Coordinator of Wilton Area Food Pantry Nye Mosher said in a phone interview about the number of clients he’s seen during the pandemic.

Mariette Castonguay from the Tri-Town Ministerial Food Cupboard in Jay similarly reported serving less clients despite the pantry’s well-established reputation in the community.

“We’re very well supported by the community and for some unknown reason, our client population has really dropped, and we’re getting half the number of people coming in than we used to have before all of this COVID,” Castonguay said. “We don’t know why, if people are weary of coming out or, I don’t know.”

The Tri-Town Ministerial Food Cupboard is located at the old Saint Rose school on 48 Main Street where there is also a self-service blessing box and refrigerator provided by the St. Rose of Lima Parish. Castonguay thought that blessing and giving boxes that have sprung up across Franklin County might potentially off-set some of the pressure on food pantries.

The St. Rose of Lima’s sister parish in Farmington, St. Joseph’s, also stocks a blessing box outside of the church and offers a self-service pantry and refrigerator. The pantry was most recently stocked with fresh vegetables from the University of Maine at Farmington’s newly established community garden.

The Old South First Congregational Church on Main Street in Farmington also supplies a blessing box outside of the church.

Both Old South and the two parishes in Jay and Farmington offer community suppers as well, which could also impact the decrease of food pantry clients.

“We’ve noticed an increase in the movement of the blessing box and the meals not insignificant to the tune of 85 in Farmington and up to 125 in Jay; not every week, but that was sort of the high point but its not been far off of that,” Father Paul Dumais of the two parishes said in a phone interview.

Both Regional School Units 9 and 73 extended food programs through the summer which offered pick-up sites as well as home delivery options. Students studying remotely throughout the County with the Upward Bound program also received home delivery food during the summer.

Brenda Bickford from Clearwater Ministry Food Pantry in Industry has noticed less younger people coming in and attributed this to increased food supplement funding.

“Yes, I’ve noticed it, especially since the younger folks are getting double their food stamps because of the pandemic, that they don’t come as often,” Bickford said in a phone interview. “The senior citizens still do, but the younger ones don’t.”

With less strain on food banks, a donation in the form of a gift card from a fundraiser sponsored by Food City has allowed the Wilton Area Food Pantry and the Tri-Town Ministerial Food Cupboard to purchase items as needed. 

“We did a round-up program at all of our stores, asking customers if they would like to round up to the next dollar and then we matched that money,” manager of Livermore Falls’ and Wilton’s Food City stores Lee Nile said in a phone interview. 

Between the two stores, over $6,000 was raised for the food pantries which Niles said was a very surprising amount.

“People were pretty generous, especially Wilton and Livermore Falls; these are kind of towns that a lot of the customers could use that extra money,” Niles said. “There’s not a lot of extra to go around in these two towns and we’re kind of shocked at the numbers that were coming through. Some people donated over that, rounded up and added an extra $5 or an extra $20.”

Niles said that the two Food City locations primarily serve local, repeat customers whom he saw donate five to six times on a weekly basis. The stores decided to donate in the form of a gift card so that the food pantries could purchase items at cost rather than paying retail price.

Both Mosher from the Wilton food pantry and Castonguay from the Jay pantry said they’ve already begun to utilize the gift card.

“This was a godsend. We’ve had plenty of donations, but of course we’re a charitable system where we always need money. But it has helped us out tremendously. I’ve used quite a bit of the money already,” Mosher said.

Both the Wilton and Livermore Falls pantries are providing services via curbside as a precaution in response to COVID-19.

“Stay outside in your car, hoot your horn, we’ll come out and give you all of the service you could ask for,” Mosher said.

The Wilton Area Food Pantry is located at 600 Main Street and is open 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The Tri-Town Ministerial Food Cupboard located at 48 Main Street in Jay allows clients to come in once a month and is open Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. and on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 4 p.m.

The Care and Share Food Closet located at 508 Fairbanks Road in Farmington is open Monday through Friday from 12 to 2 p.m. and Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m.

The St. Joseph Parish at 133 Middle Street in Farmington and the St. Rose of Lima Parish at 1 Church Street in Jay offers self-service refrigerated and pantry items seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Clearwater Ministry Food Pantry is in the old fire station on West Mills Road in Industry and is open for clients to pick-up a box of food once a month and to pick-up fruits and vegetables weekly, every Monday from 9 to 11 a.m.

For a complete listing of Franklin County food banks, refer to the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area’s (UWTVA) food bank list at https://www.uwtva.org/docs/Updated-Food-Pantry-Listing-MASTER.pdf or call UWTVA at (207) 778-5048.

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