{"id":325282,"date":"2026-08-19T21:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325282\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:24:20","slug":"new-york-county-food-resource-to-open-next-month-in-biddeford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325282\/","title":{"rendered":"New York County food resource to open next month in Biddeford"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\tLongtime Good Shepherd Food Bank head Kristen Miale, Joe Moreshead of the Saco Food Pantry, Good Shepherd Food Bank’s Kendall Penndorf and Mainspring Collaborative co-founder Megan Shapiro discuss hunger prevention efforts in York County at a panel Tuesday night in Biddeford. (Sydney Richelieu\/Staff Writer)<\/p>\n

BIDDEFORD \u2014 A new resource to fight growing food insecurity in York County will open its doors in September, hunger prevention advocates said at a Biddeford forum Tuesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The York County Food Hub will help local pantries around the county by providing warehouse space to store food, refrigeration, freezer space and transportation.\u00a0The hub is a nonprofit organization leading the effort to build the shared food security infrastructure that York County needs, President Alex Gramling said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis effort is critically important,\u201d Gramling said. \u201cThe issue is so urgent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 7,500-square-foot space, located just off Interstate 95 at 20 Pomerleau St., will also feature a commercial kitchen and loading docks to help local food pantries meet their communities\u2019 needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While a few regional anti-hunger organizations with similar models already exist in the state, this will be the first of its kind in York County.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all of the infrastructure that we need to scale and fight hunger here in York County,\u201d Gramling said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

THE STATS\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although York County is home to multimillion dollar oceanfront homes, idyllic towns and some of the best school systems in the state, many of its residents are just as vulnerable when it comes to food insecurity, advocates said during Tuesday night\u2019s forum at The Lincoln Hotel.<\/p>\n

Kendall Pendorff, a research and evaluation administrator for Good Shepherd Food Bank, said about 12.5% of York County residents deal with food insecurity \u2014 a percentage that is increasing year after year.\u00a0That means about 27,000 people, including 7,000 children, are going hungry across the county.<\/p>\n

York County has the second-lowest rate of food insecurity in Maine, just behind Cumberland County, but Pendorff said those numbers don\u2019t capture the lived experience of going hungry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost of living is going up, the cost of food is going up, and income disparity is increasing,\u201d Pendorff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Alex Gramling, center, tells community members about the York County Food Hub at a panel on Tuesday. (Courtesy of York County Food Hub)<\/p>\n

Food insecurity and income disparity also impacts different populations at different rates.\u00a0Black households, those with single mothers, young people and older people are all more likely to experience food insecurity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are pockets throughout York County that are really struggling to make ends meet,\u201d Pendorff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Megan Shapiro, co-founder of Mainspring Collaborative<\/a> in Kittery, said an average of 56 new households per month have shown up at the food bank since 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a blip, it\u2019s a trend, Shapiro said, and it\u2019s rapidly growing in York County.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Food insecurity does look like someone who is homeless, living on low income, or working two jobs, Shapiro said, \u201cbut it also looks like someone racing their kids to soccer practice and then catching the food pantry hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like the shipyard worker stopping in after work. It looks like two-income families. It looks like all of us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

PANTRIES ARE STRUGGLING\u00a0<\/p>\n

York County residents have access to many pantries that stretch from Kittery and Kennebunk to Biddeford and Standish. But those pantries don\u2019t always have everything they need to serve the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joe Moreshead of the Saco Food Pantry feels this need on a daily basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said Tuesday that the pantry has gone from serving just over 8,000 patrons in 2024 to more than 10,000 this year. Some of those patrons are new Mainers. Some are students working in Saco during the summer.\u00a0Many of them are people who just can\u2019t make ends meet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to think the pantry was a place of last resort,\u201d Moreshead said. \u201cNow, we\u2019ve become a primary source of food for these families because they can come every day. I see the same people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saco Food Pantry can\u2019t always keep up with the demand, Moreshead said, but having a resource like the York County Food Hub will help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WHAT COMES NEXT\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the hub is on track to open next month, its team is still seeking funding to help the project continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The hub hopes to raise $3.5 million, Gramling said, and to build a five-year budget around that funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we can do it. York County can do tough things,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can feed York County together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime Good Shepherd Food Bank head Kristen Miale, Joe Moreshead of the Saco Food Pantry, Good Shepherd Food…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-325282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}