The new food pantry at Coffin School in Brunswick. Sam Bensley photo

Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program and the Brunswick School Department have launched a small community food pantry at the former Coffin School on Barrows Street in Brunswick.

The pantry started March 17 and is open Thursdays from 3-5 p.m. The service is available to any Brunswick School Department student as well as their parents or guardians.

The pantry’s opening comes as the USDA reports that Maine’s food insecurity rate dipped to 11.4% (182,000 residents) between 2018 and 2020, a decrease from the previous three years.

However, data from Good Shepherd Food Bank, which distributes food to charitable programs across much of Maine, shows there is still a demand for donated food. Good Shepherd’s network of 600 partners increased its meal distribution by 12.5% in 2020 compared to 2018. In its last fiscal year of 2021, meal distribution increased 16% from the previous year.

Of the nearly 250,000 children in Maine, an estimated 20%, or nearly 50,000, are at risk of hunger. This means 1 in 5 children do not have regular access to enough healthy foods.

Brunswick-based Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program works with more than 25 local schools to serve an average of 575 students per month. Over the course of 2021, the program provided more than 17,390 meals to students.

Since its first week of opening, nine families have benefitted from the Coffin School pantry so far.

Meat, dairy products and dry goods are some of the varieties of produce that are available.

“We do see a lot of need in the community,” said Alyssa Schoppee, development manager of Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program. “We know that there are a lot of kids that could benefit from this service. Even if we can take a little of the burden off their families so that people can afford to do other things like go to the movies as a family or buy new shoes that their kids need. We are just trying to make it easier for families and this is just one way that it manifests.”

Schoppee added: “Our school pantry program has been running for almost a decade and it has only grown since it started so we know that there is a need for it. This is a program that is strongly supported in the community. We have a lot of people that are passionate about childhood hunger so that has always made us hopeful that this program will continue for as long as it needs to. We hope that it will continue to be sustainable for a long time which is always the goal for when you are starting something new.”

The hunger prevention program will oversee the initial setup and food supply to the pantry while the school district will manage its implementation and staffing.

The Coffin School closed in 2021 after 65 years of use by the school district, which has been formulating plans as to what to do with the building.