Staff Writer
Catholic Charities Food Bank in Caribou was the distribution site of nine 600-pound capacity freezers donated by the Good Shepherd Food-Bank.
Aroostook Republican photo/Barb Scott
Dixie Shaw of the Catholic Charities Food Bank helps load one of nine freezers donated to area agency food pantry agencies through the Good Shepherd Food Bank.
The freezers were distributed from the local food bank location to nine area agencies including Aroostook Bank of Mic Macs Food Panty and Mic Mac Boys and Girls Club, both of Presque Isle; Friends Helping Friends Food Pantry, Fort Fairfield; St. Louis Ecumenical Food Pantry, Limestone; St. Joseph’s Food Pantry, Hamlin; Sister Mary O’Donnell Shelter, Presque Isle; Christian Life Center, Branchville,; Gateway Bible Community Kitchen, and St. Peter’s Chanel Food Pantry, both of Van Buren.
The Good Shepherd Food Bank also distributed a large truckload of free product at the Ashland Odd Fellows site in support of recently laid off workers from Marsadis, Ashland and Portage. Pantries in these areas are working in a collaborative effort to extend help to displaced workers.
Catholic Charities Director, Dixie Shaw said, “We are the only Food Bank north of Brewer, and we get the bulk of our food items from the Good Shepherds Food Bank. We have a trailer truck to transport these items along with a forklift and the manpower and all this makes it easier to receive and distribute all the items needed to fulfill the needs of the county pantries.”
Shaw also noted that the Catholic Charities Food Bank supplies 21 pantries each month in Aroostook County. “It works out well with the Good Shepherd as we are able to get any surplus items we might have to them and vice versa,”she said.
The Catholic Charities Food Bank is in a separate location than the Thrift Shop, which the organization also operates. “We use the funds from donated items sold at the thrift shop to help offset the cost of keeping the Food Bank supplied,” said Shaw.
“ Right now, I am in desperate need of a paint shaker”, laughed Shaw,
“We have a lot of mis-tinted paint donated to the thrift shop from area businesses, however, if the label says the paint is pink, most people want to know what shade of pink, so we have to open the cans and use a paint stick to mix it up. We have pallets of this paint, that’s a lot of cans to stir by hand — we really need a paint shaker.”
