PURPOSE

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), “In 2021, 89.8 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the year. The remaining 10.2 percent of households were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 3.8 percent (5.1 million households) that had very low food security.” The Maine Legislature estimates “11.4% of households in the state, or over 153,000 people a year,” of Mainers are food insecurity.

It is imperative to be cognizant of the fact that newcomers face unique barriers to accessing existing community resources relating to ending hunger. Immigrants are more likely to deal with food insecurity due to: stigma of asking for help in a new country, fear of jeopardizing their immigration status by asking for government-funded food assistance, language, cultural and religious barriers, and poverty. The Food Security and Nutrition Initiative for New Mainers interacts directly with immigrant families to facilitate access to federally funded food assistance programs and aims to provide culturally appropriate nutritional information in multiple languages.

Offering Fresh Produce

This is possible by collaborating with local organizations such as the Locker Project, a South Portland based organization that gives us fresh fruits and healthy snacks weekly to distribute in-house, as well as bringing grocery items and healthy snacks to our events.

Hosting Weekly Cooking Classes

In collaboration with Good Shepard Food Bank, and Maine SNAP Ed, here at IWC on the fourth floor we hold weekly classes called Cooking Matters. In those classes we teach students how to read nutrition labels, how to shop on a budget, how to find items at a grocery store and practice cooking utilizing all they have learnt.

SNAP Applications

Throughout the day, one of our Community Navigators is usually available to assist with applying with SNAP benefits. We walk our clients through the application, and check up on them to see their application status.