The pallets of food are coming in just as fast as Jon Blanchard can unload them.
Rice, tomatoes, apricots and cereal whiz by as he scoops them up with a forklift and stacks them on shelves that rise to the ceiling of the Catholic Charities Food Bank in Monticello. Then the process repeats, again and again, for more than 30 minutes on Thursday morning until the Good Shepherd Food Bank trailer backed into the building’s loading dock is empty.
It’s a lot of food. Catholic Charities distributes between 110,000 and 145,000 pounds of it a month to help sustain the two dozen food pantries it supplies in Aroostook County and northern Penobscot and Washington counties.
But come November, it might not be enough.
Unless the federal government shutdown — now in its 27th day — comes to a rapid end, more than 170,000 Mainers likely won’t receive the benefits next month through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, that they use to buy groceries, as the program’s funding lapses.
Rural areas like Aroostook County, where SNAP enrollment is well above the state average, are expected to feel a greater strain, as more residents, missing benefits, will turn to food pantries to fill their need.
Do those pantries have the supply to meet new demand? The short answer is: they’re trying.
“There isn’t a program that can replace that,” Blanchard, Catholic Charities’ director of hunger and relief services, said. “But we’re best suited to do the most good and hit as much need as possible.”
Food pantries across Maine are already feeling a squeeze levied by cuts to several key USDA programs earlier this year. In March, the federal government cut approximately $500 million in funding from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) which provides American-grown food bought by the USDA.
The Trump administration also ended the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which gave money to states to purchase locally produced food that would then be distributed to food banks.
“Before we were getting maybe four or five cases of something and now we’re getting only maybe one case,” said Rena Kearney, a volunteer at the Mars Hill Community Cupboard — which serves around 14 families weekly. “If you get one case of string beans, that’s got 24 cans in it, it doesn’t go very far.”
At the Grace Interfaith Food Table in Presque Isle, volunteer Marcia Cogswell said the pantry has “a good 40 to 50% less” food on its shelves than a year prior.
She had already received three calls by 10 a.m. Wednesday, a day after the USDA warned states of the looming funding lapse, from people concerned with losing their SNAP benefits.
“People are worried about next month, is what I’m getting,” Cogswell said. “[They’re saying] ‘I just want to be on the schedule, just in case.’”
In preparing for that reality, Blanchard and Catholic Charities are taking three main steps to shore up the stock they currently have and explore bringing in more.
Firstly, the nonprofit is allowing its network of pantries to pick up their once-monthly allotments of food early to see what they’ll have available.
“The first thing I said to pantries is, ‘Hey, nobody really knows what’s coming,’” Blanchard said. “‘We’re trying to prepare, I’m encouraging you to try to prepare.’”
Secondly, the charity is talking with local producers to see whether it can ramp up purchasing in November to supply additional food, something that Blanchard said they’ve received “really good feedback” on. He encouraged people who want to help to donate financially.
Catholic Charities is also encouraging food pantries to increase the days and hours they are open, as much as volunteer availability allows for. Many small Aroostook locations are only open a few times a month.
“We recognize that some communities are smaller than others, and almost all of them are run 100% on volunteer hours,” Blanchard said. “It can actually create situations where there’s more capacity to ramp up for a short period of time.”
Will the charity be able to provide enough food to meet the full need if SNAP funding lapses? Unlikely, Blanchard said, but it is “as prepared as any place could be.”
“The need — if it happens that SNAP goes away for a while — would be very great,” he said.
Food insecurity in Maine has trended higher in recent years, to 13.8% of the state’s population in 2023, up from 10.4% in 2020, according to data from hunger relief organization Feeding America. The state also had the highest percentage of children in New England (20.6%) to experience food insecurity in 2023, the most recent year comprehensive data is available from.
Thirteen percent of the state and 20% of Aroostook County’s population are enrolled in SNAP, according to state data. The government shutdown sets the stage for a new set of challenges.
“I’m worried about individuals who are hungry,” Blanchard said. “I’m worried because if this were to happen, then you have hungry neighbors and friends. My job is to feed people, and I’m going to do the best I can, but I’m also not naive, and I know that there are limited resources.”
In Presque Isle, Cogswell is hopeful that her pantry can meet increased demand. “We have always met the demand,” she said. But 11 Industrial St. is far from Capitol Hill. There’s only so much that’s within their control.
“We will do our best,” Cogswell said. “We can only give what we have.”
