Update

Keeping the food bank afloat

Sam Pfeifle

Just when it looked as though the Portland Community Food and Nutrition Program was about to push off down the river Styx ["A Food Bank Goes Broke," August 18], the Portland community has come through to stem the tide.

On Friday, PCFNP head Skip Matson received word from Jeanette Talbot, Federal Grants Program Manager in the community services center of Maine's Health and Human Services division, that she had found $20,000 to keep the program afloat. "I didn't question it," says Matson, "I was just glad and happy that she found it."

The help comes by way of Congressman Tom Allen's office, which contacted Talbot to see if she could do anything for the flagging program. "I talked to the commissioner [Kevin Concannon] about finding some money to tide him over. Food programs and food banks are our primary service," she says, "and with the number of households that he's currently serving, [losing Matson's program] would be a major hit. It would overload the other programs. They wouldn't be able to handle the overflow."

As for where she found the money, Talbot doesn't mince words. "It's called scrounging," she says, "looking at all of our program funds, and taking a little bit of money from here, a little bit of money from there." The $20,000 should last Matson "four months or so," which may be enough time to find other federal or private grants.

But that's not the only good news Matson received over the weekend. Jennifer Huber, who, with her husband, owns three Domino's Pizza locations, contacted Matson about organizing a fundraiser to help his program. "Domino's Pizza is willing to help," says Huber, "but if I give a pizza to a family, that may not help as much as giving money to the program directly, so I thought why not do an auction for food in the area." Though still in the planning stages, Huber is hoping to hold the event in late October, possibly with a harvest theme. "It's definitely a good cause," she says. "And none of us knows when we'll be in the same situation."