By David Harry

Staff Writer

South Portland resident Gary Morin said he knows how to make his food last.

Disabled with foot problems but ready to start a new part-time job, Morin was one of 51 visitors last Thursday to the South Portland Food Cupboard at St. John the Evangelist Church.

“I stretch it, I don’t come in every month,” he said.

Assigned a number by pantry volunteer Mark Andrews, Morin picked food from tables laden with bread bought from Hannaford Bros. and vegetables donated by Jordan’s Farms in Cape Elizabeth, all while accompanied by 12-year-old volunteer Abby Rioux.

While Morin tries to limit his visits to the pantry, volunteers see more and more people coming through the door. South Portland Food Cupboard Director Sybil Riemensnider said demand increased 100 percent last month from July 2009. The pantry served 261 families and fed 629 people last month. August opened with 86 clients the first week. 

In the kitchen and pantry area, food cupboard volunteers filled other bags for Morin with canned goods, cereal and perishables bought from Legion Square Market in South Portland and Auburn-based Good Shepherd Food Bank.

The setting was cheerful and volunteers and recipients were convivial, but charity is well-organized at the food cupboard. More than 14 years of experience and about 45 volunteers make getting food to families, primarily from South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth, efficient and friendly.

Recipients from Gray and Limington also are listed on food pantry rolls, which are monitored to ensure the limit of one visit per month is enforced. Families and individuals who earn 150 percent or less of federal poverty guidelines are eligible – a family of four with an income of $33,000 can qualify for help.

In July, Riemensnider said demand increased 100 percent from July 2009. Last week, 51 people arrived for food on Thursday, including six new recipients. The day before, volunteers delivered food to 12 recipients who were unable to come to the pantry.

Like Morin, South Portland resident Kristeen Kontsas works a part-time job with full-time demands on her budget. The mother of two children, Kontsas said she was intimidated by coming to the food pantry for the first time eight months ago.

“I was sort of ashamed – you feel weird about asking for help,” she said.

Kontsas said she works an irregular schedule based on hours available to her at Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and contends with child-care costs as well as her food budget.

Her scenario is a common one, said Jason Hall, director of agency relations at Good Shepherd Food Bank.

“The majority of clients are working poor,” Hall said of the 36,000 Mainers he estimates the food bank serves each month. “The easiest one to cut is the food bill, and then that second or third job is lost.” 

Hall says the food bank, which supplies the South Portland Food Cupboard  and 644 other Maine agencies ranging from soup kitchens to group homes, is like “a wholesale club, a mixture between Hannaford Bros. and Marden’s.”

The food bank relies on corporate donations of food that cannot be sold for reasons such as damaged packaging. It seeks food sources in the same manner a surplus and salvage company such as Marden’s stocks its inventory.

Food is sold to agencies by the pound or through what Hall called a “shared maintenance fee” to pay for trucking food in from outside Maine.

With volunteers ranging from Rioux, at age 12, to Andrews, 83, about 45 people help Riemensnider feed the community.

When recipients receive a week’s worth of food for their families, volunteers cart the bags to a marked area on Aspen Avenue and load them into vehicles.

It is a task volunteers Riaz Hamid and Dick Doughty said they enjoy.

“I’m retired, I do this for personal satisfaction,” Doughty said. “I know how lucky I am.”

Hamid said he felt honored to volunteer at the pantry, and praised the smooth operations and Riemensnider’s dedication to feeding the community.

“I call her captain,” he said.

Riemensnider said the South Portland Food Pantry also distributes United States Department of Agriculture surplus food packages to 45 area senior citizens each month who live on incomes of $1,100 or less. Those packages contain cereal, juice, fruit, vegetables, pasta, peanut butter and canned milk. 

The cupboard is supported by contributions, including $2,500 from the South Portland budget, the Maine Credit Union League and private donors. It received $82,000 in donations in fiscal year 2009 and spent $55,000.

As fiscal year 2011 opened, Riemensnider said the cupboard was “lucky to get about $3,000 in donations” and spent about $5,000 a month for food. St. John the Evangelist at 611 Main St. provides  the pantry rent-free use of the basement and pays utility costs to operate freezers and lights the basement. 

In the first week of August, volunteer Anita Taylor oversaw the weekly food distribution as Riemensnider took a vacation. Taylor said she understands the need – she relied on a food pantry in Windham several years ago. She said increased need may be related to people losing unemployment benefits as the job market remains sluggish.

After seven years of volunteering, Andrews said he knows the need is real and sees it increasing as he greets recipients weekly.

“If people need it, they need it,” he said.

With a new job coming, Morin said his life may be on the upswing. But his retirement savings are gone and he cannot stay on his feet long. His food will last longer than a week, and he knows where to get 20 eggs for $2.75 at a farm in Lisbon.

“They are so big you can’t even wrap your hand around them,” he said. He said he boils them and prays to God and his angels for help in his life.

Rioux said seeing recipients like Morin is not always easy, but is glad she has volunteered.

“I try to make their day, to make them smile,” she said. 

Riemensnider and Hall said donations will spike in fall and early winter and pantry shelves will be abundant. Recent cash donations also have helped, she said.

Cash is always the best gift for a food pantry; money stretches further when spent by food banks or pantries than by a consumer at a store, Riemensnider said.

Most of those who needed food last Thursday had been helped by 10 a.m. Riemensnider allowed herself a smile as she sat at a table and the kitchen quieted. 

Demand is so high Riemensnider said there are discussions about limiting food recipients to South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth. She does not like the idea. 

“I don’t want to refuse anybody,” she said.

Donations to the South Portland Food Cupboard can be mailed to 29 Aspen Ave., South Portland, ME 04106.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219