Small town feeds many

By Karen Donato
Staff Writer
    The small town of Ludlow has witnessed the need to assist families with food, increase by leaps and bounds this winter. This small community of approximately 400 residents according to the last census in 2000 is serving 17 surrounding communities from their food pantry.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Karen Donato
TYPICAL FAMILY BOX — Ted Ivey, president of the Ludlow Food Pantry shows a box full of food ready for a family to take home.
    The initial list of families needing assistance was 26 in 2006. Today the pantry is providing food for 280 clients. Last month alone there were 39 new applications submitted to the town office.
    The pantry is operated by volunteers and is located at the Ludlow Town Office on the Ludlow Road. The Ludlow town manager, Marybeth Foley is also the pantry treasurer. She coordinates the effort with selectman and president of the food pantry, Ted Ivey.
    Foley said, “Without the generosity of Ivey, we would not have the supply of food that we do.”
    Ivey volunteers his time and truck to pick up the food from as far away as Portland. With today’s fuel prices that is not a cheap trip. From documentation, it is costing the organization $1,000 a month just in fuel.
    The food pantry is open Thursday and Friday afternoons from 3 p.m. until 6, once a month. The approved clients have a designated day to pick up food.
    The day of this interview, the pantry had just been restocked with 30,000 pounds of food. The food is available through a partnership with Caribou and the Catholic Charities of Maine, the Good Shepherd Food Bank, B&M Beans in Portland and the United States Department of Agriculture in Augusta. Hannaford Brothers and Shaw’s grocery stores also provide food. This particular week they had received chicken, potatoes and 2,200 loaves of bread. Some of the food is free and some of it is purchased in bulk. It all needs to be picked up from points south and transported to Ludlow.
    In order for families to receive assistance they must meet state income guidelines. They must also not be receiving food from any other food pantry.
    Foley said that she has had some abuse of the system, but not a significant amount.
    Each qualifying family can receive 220-300 pounds of food per month, although the size of the family figures into the quantity. In addition to the food they sometimes receive personal hygiene products and household cleaners.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Karen Donato
PANTRY PREPARATION — Jennifer Jeffery, volunteer at the Ludlow Food Pantry, sorts inventory for client pick up.
    If a family finds itself in crisis when the food pantry is not open they can call the town office for assistance and food will be provided.
    The members of the food pantry raise money to support the project through yard sales, grants, suppers, solicitations and donations from businesses and individuals and contributions from their own town of Ludlow.
    It takes 10 to 15 volunteers to unpack and organize each load of food. They try to hand out as much as possible when it is fresh and not keep too much in reserve to be out of date. Last fall they built a 2,280 cubic square foot walk-in freezer. Much of the labor and materials were donated.
    “This was a great addition to the food pantry, said Ivey. It enables us to store meat and anything else that we can freeze in a spacious facility. Individual freezers made it almost impossible to handle the quantity of food we receive.”
    Several local businesses have donated fuel assistance funds in return for Ivey to transport merchandise to locations south of Houlton when he is on a food run.
    Steve Parsons, a volunteer provides an online Web site: www.RunAndGetIt.com. This site connects people that need items transported south or picked up and brought north with the food pantry helping everyone get what they need and where they need it.
    According to Foley the fuel and transportation expense could be eliminated if the various towns whose residents are benefiting from the pantry could donate approximately $1,000 a year.
    The board members are looking for someone that might have a 14-foot by 16-foot box truck they would like to donate or sell at a reasonable price and any fuel assistance from individuals.
    They also need of a 10-foot by 15-foot gravity roller or motorized conveyor for easier delivery of the food from the truck into the building.
    For more information or to volunteer contact the Ludlow Town Office, 532-7743, Ivey, 538-6404 or visit the Web site: www.ludlowfoodpantry.org.