Emergency Food Response in Lewiston-Auburn, Maine

CDI has been involved in the Lewiston-Auburn (L-A) Emergency Food Response since mid-March. We have been able to support efforts of collaboration and communication, and we have witnessed the courage and enthusiasm of a wide network of organizations, banding together to help the area’s diverse communities. L-A is Maine’s second-largest urban area. It wrestles with a high poverty rate, which is one of the reasons its population is greatly affected by the ongoing health crisis.

Aid organizations including pantries, immigrant resource organizations, grant and service providers, the local school district and government entities are all actively networking to bring food and other resources to those in need. Critical information has been translated into many languages and shared across a variety of platforms to allow for broader and deeper reach into the most vulnerable communities. Food has been donated, purchased, and gleaned. Unique and innovative ways of distributing food have rapidly emerged and there is ongoing discussion around the best ways to reach more community members.

Our client, New Roots Cooperative Farm, recently received a Sewall Foundation Emergency Response Grant, allowing them to team up with the Mosque in Lewiston to supply culturally appropriate foods to the Somali community in L-A. Produce from the farm will be donated and distributed in an accessible and familiar environment. Through community collaboration with other organizations and financial support from the Sewall Foundation, New Roots will play a large part in alleviating hunger throughout the farming season. New Roots already participates in the Mainers Feeding Mainers Program with the Good Shepherd Food Bank which provides food for food pantries in Southern Maine. Isuken Co-op, another client of CDI, will be re-opening their Somali food truck and during the month of Ramadan (happening now) and beyond they will be providing free food to elders in the Somali community.  

We have seen these extraordinary acts of compassion and care bud and bloom in the L-A community and beyond. This crisis continues to shift our economic and social paradigm away from profit-seeking and endless growth, toward one that values life, compassion, and in which we can live in balance with each other and our natural environment. New Roots and our partners in L-A are proving every day that we can better adapt to an ever-changing world through collaboration, cooperation, and concern for our community. 

– Emmy Anderson,  CBS Cooperative Business Developer & CMBA Network Coordinator