As a retired chef, mother and small food producer, I have dedicated much of my life to ensuring that those in my community have enough to eat. While the holiday season is a joyous occasion for many families, for those of us who don’t know where our next meal will come from, the holidays can be particularly difficult. That’s why I was so pleased to participate in an event last month celebrating a new partnership between Preble Street and DoorDash. Their collaboration – “Project DASH” – seeks to tackle food insecurity in the Greater Portland area.
Too many of our friends and neighbors here in Cumberland County and across the state are confronted with the painful daily reality of not being able to access enough food for themselves and their families. When I first started doing this work, one in every four children in the state went hungry. We have come a long way since then, but hunger still plagues many Mainers. In the face of current economic challenges, including inflation and rising costs, the future of food access is even more uncertain.
Over the past several years, we have ensured that kids get a free meal at school every day, we have sent food home in backpacks, and we have built partnerships with local food producers to better coordinate our efforts. I am proud of this work, but, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Maine still has the second-highest rate of food insecure households in New England and the highest rate of very-low food secure households. Nearly one in 10 Mainers are currently facing hunger, including one out of every six children.
While these statistics are staggering, they represent so much more than just numbers. The people behind them are our friends, our neighbors and other members of our community, many of whom often hide that they are going through tough times. We can do better.
In the Legislature, ending hunger in our state has been a top priority for me and for my colleagues. In 2019, we passed bipartisan legislation outlining a roadmap to end hunger in Maine by 2030, a collective commitment to create hunger-free communities and ensure that every Mainer has a stable foundation on which to build a good life.
One of the most important pieces of that roadmap was to encourage and support more local partnerships and innovative solutions to address the systemic causes of hunger and help bridge the meal gap. Project DASH is exactly the type of partnership we envisioned.
Project DASH offers last-mile logistic support to Preble Street. This bold vision moves Maine closer toward establishing a comprehensive food system that extends the life of food, limits waste and broadens access to food so that more Mainers – including some of our most vulnerable – receive nutritious, culturally appropriate ingredients and meals conveniently and with the dignity that they deserve. It is an amazing example of the power of collaboration and the possibilities that we can achieve by working together.
This partnership has the potential to be transformational for Preble Street’s work, playing a critical role in our efforts to end food insecurity in the greater Portland area and helping to create a hunger-free Maine for future generations. I am excited to continue working to facilitate more partnerships like this in this coming legislative session.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns or ideas, please feel welcome to reach out.
Rep. Maureen “Mo” Terry, D-Gorham, is serving her fourth term in the Maine House of Representatives. She is the House majority leader, where she serves as head of the Democratic caucus. Outside of her legislative work, Rep. Terry is a chef and small business owner. Contact her at maureen.terry@legislature.maine.gov.