For some students, life’s biggest worry might be making the varsity squad or passing a tricky geometry test. But for the growing number of kids dealing with food insecurity or homelessness, just making it to school with a good night’s rest and a full belly can be a daunting challenge. 

Shelley Kane is in their corner.

As the director of community outreach and development for Biddeford, Saco and Dayton schools, Kane, 50, is always working behind the scenes to ensure the basic needs of the roughly 2,500 students living below the poverty line are met. 

When a teacher or member of a school resiliency team learns that a child’s family needs extra support, the staff springs into action. If parents are struggling to put enough food on the table, the team might enroll their child in a “backpack program,” which sends kids home for the weekend with meals and snacks. 

For more complicated problems, Kane plays fixer, tapping into her extensive network of community connections to find a nonprofit that can help cover a family’s overdue electric bill or a trucking company that will shuttle a shipment of canned food from Hannaford to the schools’ resiliency teams.

“If you don’t know what to do or how to handle something, she’s the one you go to,” said Michele Landry, a member of the Biddeford School Committee who also works with Kane on the Biddeford Education Foundation.

Through her work as president of that group and as a board member of a similar nonprofit in Saco, Kane helps raise tens of thousands of dollars each year by spreading awareness about how serious the need is — and how easy it can be to make a difference. 

“If everybody just takes a moment, even an hour, even if it was just an hour a month to give back,” she said, “you feel good about what you’re doing.” 

Maine State Credit Union is dedicated to supporting the people, traditions, and communities that keep our state strong. Learn more at mainestatecu.org.