Healthy Lincoln County Community Routes Project Coordinator Samantha Mehlhorn sits in the driver seat of Lulu the Lunch Wagon. Primarily used for Healthy Lincoln Countys summer meals distribution program, Lulu has been pressed into double duty to do deliveries for the Community Routes program. (Sherwood Olin photo)
Almost every day of the work week, Samantha Mehlhorn is on the road in Lincoln County. In her capacity as the Healthy Lincoln County Community Routes project coordinator, it is her job to get the things people need into their hands as quickly and efficiently as possible.
In many cases that means making deliveries door to door, Mehlhorn said. Almost entirely prescreened by area providers, the people she serves can need everything from essentials like toothpaste and soap to blankets, clothes, dry goods, and Narcan.
Mehlhorn’s current role is a change from the previous three years when she worked as Healthy Lincoln County’s supplemental nutrition assistance program nutrition educator. The elimination of federal funding for the national Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in 2025 also cut the program here in Lincoln County.
Mehlhorn said she had a few nervous months last year as the impact of the federal cuts became clear.
“There was definitely some unsure moments,” she said. “We found out in July that the program was being cut nationally, and of course, we still didn’t really know what that would mean.”
Mehlhorn said she went so far as to update her resume and took a couple interviews before a private donor stepped forward and offered support through the Beverly, Mass.-based Charlesview Foundation.
“Thankfully, with the Charlesview Foundation coming in late fall, saying, ‘Hey, we really want to support some sort of a program here. Where do you see there being a potential need that you could fill?’” Mehlhorn said. “We were able to put (Community Routes) together. Thankfully that overlap worked out.”
An educator by inclination and training, Mehlhorn said she loved working for as the SNAP educator. She was in and out of area schools and community meetings, constantly talking about food and nutrition issues.
For Mehlhorn, a talented cook herself, it was still teaching, but it was focused on one issue rather than several.
“I was still working with kids, still working with the community,” she said. “Just focusing in the type of teaching I was doing, rather than nine different subjects and all the different areas. Focusing more on nutrition and budgeting (and) cooking was a ton of fun.”
Mehlhorn joined Healthy Lincoln County in 2023 after a 12-year stint as the lead middle school teacher at Damariscotta Montessori School in Nobleboro. She loved working for the private school but she recognized when it was a time for a change.
“I had really worked hard and built that program and felt like even the school was potentially ready for some new blood and a change,” she said. “It felt like a good time for a challenge and a new change. For me, the program was really strong. Our elementary programs were really strong, so I was kind of going out on a high note, which felt good.”
The Montessori job was a boon for Mehlhorn, giving her some professional stability and in 2019 allowing her to buy a home in Newcastle, where she loves to spend time gardening, cooking, and pampering her devoted dog, Maddie.
Mehlhorn said she knew very little about the Maria Montessori’s teaching philosophy before she took the job, but she was reassured by her mother that the concepts involved were not foreign.
“I definitely was a little nervous when I applied for the job, because I did not have that specific background,” Mehlhorn said. “My mom was really funny when I said to her, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I should even apply.’ And her response was, ‘Well, you didn’t go to a Montessori school, but you were raised as a Montessori kid.’”
Her parents, Mehlhorn explained, raised the kids to responsible, independent learners.
“You know, the independence around things, and learning how to do things at a young age that’s really built, especially into the preschool age group,” she said. “You know, learning how to put your own shoes on, carry your own backpack, clean up when you spill the milk, just those kind of daily independent things.”
Reassured, Mehlhorn applied. She is convinced to this day the administrator who hired was desperate to fill the position, but it worked out for both parties, she said.
“I know the director at the time was in a little bit of a time crunch when he hired me, and really thought he was probably taking a huge risk,” she said. “I am pleased to say that it went really, really well. It was definitely a good match.”
Today, Mehlhorn said she is delighted to find herself living in her home community, but at one time it was a life she wasn’t sure she wanted. Born and raised in Nobleboro, the oldest of four children born to Peter and Jean Mehlhorn, Samantha Mehlhorn had thoughts of living and working in a big city somewhere.
“I think when I was younger, I dreamed of potentially living somewhere different,” she said. “Washington, D.C. always excited me when I was looking to what I wanted to do … I have always loved that city in general.”
After graduating from Lincoln Academy in 2004, Mehlhorn went on to Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn., where she double majored in history and political science, emerging in 2009 with a master’s degree in education.
She wasn’t planning on returning to Maine but circumstances created an opportunity and she took it, she said. As it happened, Mehlhorn graduated in 2009 into the teeth of one of the worst recessions in American history.
“2009 was not a great time period to go into education, because of the big recession in 2008,” Mehlhorn said. “It hit the teacher and education retirement funds pretty heavy, so a big group of teachers that were somewhat expected to retire in that couple years did not and ended up staying longer. So I was going to interviews for jobs with 300-plus applicants to each teaching position, which now schools would just die for. It was a tricky time.”
She returned to Maine to take a long-term substitute teaching position, filling in for a semester at Wiscasset High School.
“I started there right out of grad school, and absolutely loved it,” she said. “I had a wonderful experience.”
When that teacher returned to work, Mehlhorn managed to obtain a similar position at Richmond Middle School where she finished out the year.
Unable to find a suitable positions for the 2010-2011 school year, she took a job as a program manager with Mobius Inc. in Damariscotta and then spent several years working with Round Pond artist and Peapod Jewelry owner Ronna Lugosch before moving on to Damariscotta Montessori School.
At the time, Lugosch was getting ready to relocate her business from Round Pond to its current home at 40 Route 1 in Edgecomb.
“She hired me to help with that transition and to kind of work in the gallery and sales and learn some of the actual like jewelry at that point assembly, because we were doing a lot of customization,” Mehlhorn said. “So I worked there for a couple years before I really found at that point, my dream teaching position.”
In the immediate future, Mehlhorn said she hopes to continue building out the Community Routes program. A more permanent funding source still needs to be found, but in the immediate future, Mehlhorn said she is figuring a way to share Lulu the Lunch Wagon, Healthy Lincoln County’s delivery van. Primarily used for the organization’s summer meals distribution program, Lulu has been pressed into double duty to do deliveries for the Community Routes program.
“We’ve got an exciting new program that I’m really, really looking forward to continuing to build,” she said. “I mean, we want to increase the enrollment, the people using the service, the knowledge of the service. One of the next big things will be purchasing some additional vehicles to support this program and also looking for long-term funding to really keep it going.”
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