Very good Shepherd Meals Lender responds to billionaire’s donation

A employee packs food stuff containers at Excellent Shepherd Food items Lender. Great Shepherd Foods Financial institution photograph

AUBURN — The persons of Very good Shepherd Food items Financial institution are thrilled to say the minimum. 

Slated to acquire a chunk of a $4 billion donation from creator and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, Great Shepherd organizers say the money will enable them get more foods to additional men and women who desperately will need it. 

How will they use the income? 

“We are swiftly convening our board of directors, leadership team, and other stakeholders,” President Kristen Miale explained, “and doing the job hard to be certain that the philanthropy entrusted to us will assist a lot more Mainers entry extra healthy food items equitably and successfully — now during the crisis of COVID-19, and for the long term.”  

It’s not distinct exactly how a lot Fantastic Shepherd will receive. The Food Bank expects to acquire its reward early in 2021 and programs to share facts at that time and how it will be invested across Maine’s charitable food community. 

“MacKenzie Scott’s expenditure in Maine is a vote of self esteem in the get the job done we are all executing alongside one another to end starvation in our good condition,” Miale stated. “From our a lot more than 500 group partners and our meals donors, to all the persons, enterprises and foundations that aid us with economical contributions at just about every amount — we should really all come to feel happy to receive this countrywide and intercontinental recognition.” 

Scott introduced the donations Tuesday through a web site post on Medium, with numerous of the recipients serving susceptible populations that have been strike excess tricky by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In accordance to Excellent Shepherd, the announcement will come as Maine is in the midst of an unparalleled hunger disaster. Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, Maine experienced the 12th optimum food items insecurity charge in the country with 180,000 Mainers relying on Superior Shepherd Meals Lender and its statewide network of associates. These days, that amount approaches 215,000 folks, at minimum 60,000 of whom are children, with households of shade suffering from disproportionately greater premiums of hunger. 

Based on facts from Feeding America, the greatest starvation-aid corporation in the U.S., Superior Shepherd Food stuff Bank estimates there are about 13 million meals lacking from the plates of Mainers this calendar year, on major of the 27.2 million foods the Food stuff Lender and its companions are furnishing. The organization aims to close this meal gap by 2025. 

Fantastic Shepherd Food items Bank not too long ago revealed details demonstrating the impression of its network’s perform in the previous yr. Irrespective of sizeable foodstuff sourcing worries for the duration of the peak of the pandemic, the Foodstuff Lender distributed two million a lot more foods calendar year-about-yr when raising the total of locally grown and developed food stuff by 25%. To support bolster the statewide work, the Foods Lender granted much more than $1 million to foodstuff pantries, meal internet sites, educational institutions, and other associates throughout the state, such as grants to organizations led by and serving communities of shade for sourcing culturally related foods. 

“The philanthropic financial commitment from MacKenzie Scott will be an accelerator and amplifier as we do the job toward the aim of ending starvation in Maine, but the problem is more substantial than what any one particular philanthropist can fix,” Miale stated. “Ending starvation and its devastating results in our good state is in just our reach when we all come together and lead to the resolution. With this financial commitment and the ongoing generosity of all Mainers, jointly we can stop starvation.” 

For far more facts, take a look at feedingmaine.org. 

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