Harrison Food Bank director Sandy Swett organizes a box of lettuce in the mostly empty cooler on Thursday. Swett says the organization depends on a federal program that typically sends a half-million pounds of food to Maine each month, a resource that has been cut in half. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

Sandy Swett is used to driving hundreds of miles each week to pick up food donations to stock the Harrison Food Bank.

With 1,000 people coming in every week for groceries, she also depends on the deliveries her organization receives from the half-million pounds of healthy food Maine receives from a federal program each month.

Starting this week, though, that amount has been cut in half — creating a crisis that food pantry directors say will make it harder to feed the thousands of Mainers who rely on the emergency food system.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” said Swett, the food pantry’s executive director. “Our shelves are bare. Our meat cooler is bare. It’s made a huge impact, and the need is worse than ever.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month that it is cutting the amount of food distributed through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which provides U.S.-grown food to participating states.

The agency also terminated its Local Food Purchase Assistance program, which gives states money to buy local food for meal programs, food banks and other organizations that aid underserved populations. That program helped improve food security in Maine while creating opportunities for local farmers, according to the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

All of these cuts come as the number of Mainers experiencing food insecurity is increasing, putting more pressure on the network of hundreds of food pantries and meal programs across the state that rely on TEFAP and other federal programs. Many of the programs are run by volunteers, operate on small budgets funded primarily by donations and serve rural communities with high numbers of people living near or below the poverty line.

One in eight Mainers, or about 180,000 people, faces hunger — the highest food insecurity rate in New England, according to data collected by the national nonprofit Feeding America. That includes roughly 45,000 children.

“It’s going to be really devastating,” said Hannah Chatalbash, executive director of the Brunswick-based Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program. “We’ve never been in a position where the need was so high and the federal government was restricting access to critical food at the same time.”

NO SAFETY NET

Good Shepherd Food Bank, which distributes food to a network of more than 600 partners across the state, typically relies on TEFAP for about 20% of what it sends out. But last week, the organization received only 250,000 pounds, half of what it normally gets.

TEFAP was created to help supplement the diets of lower-income Americans through emergency food assistance. In fiscal year 2024, the program received $461.5 million to buy food nationwide and $80 million for administrative costs.

Swett says the cuts to the program have created a crisis that will make it harder to feed thousands of Mainers. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

The cancellation “takes food away from hungry Maine people already facing high grocery prices and hurts Maine farmers who are already squeezed by tariffs and other cuts to domestic markets,” Sen. Angus King said in a recent statement, announcing that he had joined 25 other senators in pushing the USDA to reinstate food shipments.

Heather Paquette, president of Auburn-based Good Shepherd, said cutting the amount of food will force food programs to try to find other ways to buy food, a potentially insurmountable challenge for smaller pantries that serve especially vulnerable populations.

Staff at Mid Coast Hunger Prevention are still trying to figure out how to adjust its programs, which include its main pantry in Brunswick and smaller locations at schools, town halls and low-income senior housing complexes. The organization had more than 16,000 food pantry visits last year, an increase of 143% since 2019.

Mid Coast Hunger Prevention had been receiving 11,000 to 14,000 pounds of food each month through TEFAP, but the April distribution was only 8,000 pounds and Chatalbash expects that amount to drop over the next couple of months. She said the organization will have to do additional fundraising to try to buy more food and may have to cut back on how much it redistributes to smaller pantries.

She has already heard about a food pantry in Aroostook County that may have to close entirely.

“For most pantries, what this means is they either have to decide they’re simply going to distribute less food, which is not a choice we ever want to make, or they have to find the money to buy it,” Chatalbash said. “There is no safety net here.”

Harrison Food Bank is already seeing near-empty shelves after federal cuts to the USDA’s food assistance program meant less fresh food being sent to food pantries. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

In Harrison, the food bank has already cut back how much food people can receive. Recently, Swett put notes in boxes delivered to more than 350 people who can’t get to the pantry — they’re among the most vulnerable people served by the program — to explain why they were getting less food.

“I got five old ladies calling saying, ‘If someone else needs my food, let them have it,'” she said. “I think food is a basic human right. I can understand a lot of the government cuts, but food is not something you can take away from people.”

‘IT WILL GET WORSE’

Rena Kearney is anticipating at least 20% less food will be delivered to Mars Hill Community Cupboard, a small pantry in Aroostook County. She’s already thinking about which organizations and churches she can reach out to for donations.

“We’ll be hurting,” she said.

Though small, the pantry, open twice a month to about 30 people from five communities, is a critical resource. Many of the clients are older and on fixed incomes. If the pantry closes or doesn’t have enough food to go around, some of its clients simply can’t travel 15 miles or more to another food pantry, Kearney said.

Harrison Food Bank Director Sandy Swett says the food pantry will have to give clients less food than usual after drastic cuts in the food being disbursed by the USDA. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

At the other end of the state, Footprints, in Kittery, has seen a dramatic rise in people coming in to pick up food in the market-style pantry. In the past year, it has recorded 28,000 shopping visits from 651 households. Executive Director Megan Shapiro-Ross is projecting a 97% increase in households seeking food assistance this year as people also face rising housing and utility costs.

“Recent funding cuts have the potential to drive these numbers even higher, increasing the strain on our resources,” she said.

Shapiro-Ross said Footprints has already been seeing more people come in seeking meat, dairy or eggs that they can’t find at other food pantries. So far the organization has kept up with the demand, but she worries about the impact on the community.

“I’m going to try to stay rooted in optimism and think we’re going to get through this,” Shapiro-Ross said. “But it will get worse before it gets better.”

The timing of TEFAP reductions is a challenge at the Waterville Food Bank, where the number of people served has jumped by at least 25% in the past six months. At least 300 families come in each month, said Sandra Hammond, president of the food pantry board.

With a 50% reduction in its TEFAP food, Hammond said, the food bank is now having to buy more food at a time when grocery prices continue to tick up. They’re trying to figure out how to make a new push for donations and may need to do food drives to keep the pantry going, she said.

“There’s no reason for anyone in this country to be hungry.”