BRUNSWICK

Karen Parker is grateful for the help — and so are those who receive meals from Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program.

The Union Street soup kitchen and food pantry received a check for $1,200 on Friday, its share of the proceeds from September’s Taste of Brunswick event organized by the Brunswick Downtown Association.

Featuring more than 14 local eateries and pubs, the annual event is a way for eateries to promote their menus while raising money for various services and social assistance programs.

Brunswick Downtown Association’s leader, Debora King, presented Parker with the check — enough to buy another local visit from the Foodmobile, dispatched from Auburn-based Good Shepard Food Bank.

It will be the Foodmobile’s eighth visit to Brunswick this year. The truck is scheduled to be at Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program’s parking lot, 84 Union St., 9 to 11 a.m. on Dec. 8.

The majority of soup kitchen users are from Brunswick, but residents of eight other municipalities also visit the facility, which officials said has seen visits increase by 10 and 11 percent, respectively, the past two years.

By year’s end, the kitchen will have served more than 35,000 meals. Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program recently set its single-day record Nov. 5, when it served 224 meals in 75 minutes.

The pantry also has seen a steady rise in the number of people seeking help with feeding their families: up 10 percent over 2011, with a 22 percent hike in new family visits.

“Demographics are changing, too,” Parker said. “We’ve seen a larger percentage of young adults, people 18 to 25.”

She attributes the rise in use to the jobless, the underemployed and cuts in federal and state assistance, as well as to the constant rise in heating and utility costs.

More than 142 volunteers are required every day to keep the food cooking and the lunch line moving.

“If not for them, we couldn’t do it,” Parker said. “Think about what it would cost if we had to fund a payroll of 140 people?”

jtleonard@timesrecord.com