BIDDEFORD — Good Shepherd Food Bank recently received a $20,000 grant from The Dunkin’ Donuts & Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation. The donation is part of a three-year, $1 million grant from DDBRCF to Feeding America to support critical child hunger initiatives nationwide.
The grant will help the 64,000 children who struggle with hunger in Maine through supporting the Food Bank’s School Pantry program.
A Food Bank School Pantry program operates out of the John. F. Kennedy Memorial School and Kindergarten Center.
The School Pantry Program helps alleviate child hunger in America through the provision of food to children and their families to take home from school.
“This funding from the Dunkin’ Donuts & Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation will be crucial in helping us expand the School Pantry program at several schools,” said Kristen Miale, president of Good Shepherd Food Bank.
The food bank has a distribution center in Biddeford.
“The schools that we’ve partnered with to offer food resources through School Pantry have been so appreciative,” said Miale. “We know that by providing more food to these schools, we will reach more kids and families who are struggling with hunger.”
The DDBRCF grant funds will be used to expand service at five of the Food Bank’s highest need, most rural School Pantry sites. Additional food resources will be provided to Beatrice Rafferty Elementary in Perry, Milo Elementary, Indian Township Elementary, Kingman Elementary, and Mattawancook Junior High School.
In total, Good Shepherd Food Bank partners with 39 schools across Maine to operate the School Pantry program.
Mitch Cohen, a Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins franchisee and co-chair of The Dunkin’ Donuts & Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation, said, “Dunkin’ Brands and its franchisees are committed to serving the basic needs of our communities throughout the country, each and every day. One of the most pressing needs facing our communities is the fight against hunger, particularly childhood hunger. We are proud to make the largest donation in the Foundation’s history to Feeding America to support this cause, and we look forward to continuing to partner with Feeding America member food banks in 2014 and beyond.”
The $1 million DDBRCF grant, the largest donation in the foundation’s history, will be distributed among Feeding America member food banks across the United States. The DDBRCF has partnered with Feeding America at the national level since 2007 and in addition to the most recent grant has donated more than $1 million over the past seven years to support Feeding America and its local food banks.
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