The Ecumenical Food Pantry in Newcastle coordinates the preparation of Thanksgiving food baskets.
Thanksgiving is a time for gathering family and friends for a special meal, but some families find it difficult to afford the turkey and fixings to celebrate the holiday. Again this year, through the generosity of many donors and the efforts of many volunteers, the Ecumenical Food Pantry in Newcastle was able to coordinate the preparation of Thanksgiving food baskets to allow these families to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
A mailing brought a generous response, funding the purchase of turkeys and other foodstuffs from Main Street Grocery in Damariscotta. Donations of food from the community and from the Ecumenical Food Pantry’s eight sponsoring churches were also incorporated into the baskets. Local farms, including Morning Dew Farm, Clark’s Cove Orchard, Biscay Orchard, Clark Farms, Beth’s Farm, Spear’s Vegetable Farm, and the Twin Villages Foodbank Farm, made donations of fresh produce — apples, potatoes, and squash – for the baskets, and Hannaford Supermarket donated a quantity of onions.
Many Thanksgiving food baskets at the Ecumenical Food Pantry in Newcastle.
The tons of food thus gathered were packed into 190 individual baskets by volunteers from the eight Ecumenical Food Pantry-sponsoring churches, from students from Lincoln Academy, and from the larger community. Trucks from 11 Lincoln County towns picked up the baskets for their neighbors and brought them to their town offices for distribution. Towns served were Alna, Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Dresden, Jefferson Newcastle, Nobleboro, South Bristol, Waldoboro, and Whitefield.
