Hannaford, nonprofits partner on $1M school-based food pantry project

A line of people carrying boxes into a building.

Courtesy / Hannaford Hannaford employees load a pallet of food into a van to be donated to the school food pantry at East End Children’s Workshop. The Scarborough-based grocery chain announced it's donating $1 million to establish 90 school-based food pantries across the Northeast.

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By Staff

Hannaford Supermarkets is partnering with area hunger relief organizations and making a $1 million donation to establish school food pantries across Maine, the Scarborough-based grocery store chain announced Wednesday.

The donation is part of Hannaford's new “Fuel Kids at School” initiative, which company officials said is designed to directly address food insecurity and improve access to fresh and healthy food for children.

“Children can’t be at their best if they’re hungry — or thinking about where their next meal will come from," said Mike Vail, Hannaford president, in a news release. "It is our hope that Fuel Kids at School will take us one step further in nourishing our communities, one child at a time.

"We want access to food to be easy for kids. Locating food pantries where they are — at their schools should make a lasting and deep impact on child nutrition across our five states," Vail said.

Good Shepherd Food Bank received $300,000 from Hannaford to establish school-based food pantries in 30 Head Start preschools in Maine. Over two years similar efforts will establish 90 school-based food banks across several Northeast states.

"The correlation between access to nutritious food and early childhood development and learning makes Head Start locations the ideal match for our next phase of school-based pantries," said Kristen Maile, president of Good Shepherd Food Bank. "We know that expanding our pantry sites to serve pre-school-aged children and their families will play an important role in ensuring a bright future for Maine's youngest citizens."

The pantries are designed to "serve as a vital and convenient resource to students and families in need while also increasing access to healthy and nutritious food," the release said. In the pantries, students can select food they enjoy, according to preference and cooking abilities, to provide nourishment both during the school day and after it's over.

"The Fuel Kids at School funding, with its focus on Head Start programs, will enable us to make nutritious food readily available to more families at risk of hunger in the critical years before their children enter the public schools," said Kathryn Sargent, executive director of the Locker Project. Based in Scarborough, it provides healthy snacks for kids, both in school and for after school.

The announcement took place in conjunction with a donation of $1,000 in school food pantry staples to the East End Children’s Workshop in Portland, along with chef-prepared food for the parents and students at the local pre-school.

In 2018, Hannaford donated nearly 26 million pounds of food throughout the Northeast, and raised $1.1 million in partnership with its shoppers to feed individuals in need through the annual Hannaford Helps Fight Hunger program.

Earlier this month, Hannaford announced it has donated more than $1 million to nonprofits throughout New York and New England as a result of its reusable bag program, a portion of which is dedicated to hunger relief organizations and has funded more than 1.8 million meals to date.