Good Shepherd Food Bank President Heather Paquette stands in the cooler of the organization’s Auburn facility, where they currently distribute about 40 million meals a year. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
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The head of Good Shepherd Food Bank is calling a 50% cut in the food it usually receives through a USDA program an “almost insurmountable” amount, saying it will be that much harder to feed the growing number of food insecure Mainers.

The first delivery affected by the reduction is on April 1, when Good Shepherd expects to receive 250,000 pounds of food instead of 500,000, said Heather Paquette, president of the Auburn-based food bank. That food accounts for 20% of the food the organization distributes to more than 600 partners across the state, including food pantries and schools.

The cuts in the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which provides cases of U.S.-grown food to participating states, come as the number of Mainers experiencing food insecurity is increasing, putting even more pressure on Good Shepherd and its partners.

One in eight Mainers, or about 180,000 people, faces hunger – the highest food insecurity rate in New England, according to data collected by the national nonprofit Feeding America. That includes roughly 45,000 children. Good Shepherd, which distributes about 40 million meals per year, is the state’s only Feeding America-affiliated food bank.

On Thursday, Sen. Angus King joined 25 other senators in pushing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reinstate food shipments and provide “concrete reasoning of the cancellation of congressionally approved funding” for the program.

TEFAP was created to help supplement the diets of lower-income Americans through emergency food assistance. In fiscal year 2024, the program received $461.5 million to buy food, and $80 million for administrative costs.

“A cancellation of these funds could result in $500 million in lost food provisions to feed millions of Americans at a time when the need for food shelves is extremely high due to costly groceries and an uncertain economy,” the senators wrote in a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins. “If true, this major shift in a program utilized by emergency food providers in every state in the nation will have a significant and damaging impact upon millions of people who depend upon this program for critical food assistance.”

The cancellation “takes food away from hungry Maine people already facing high grocery prices and hurts Maine farmers who are already squeezed by tariffs and other cuts to domestic markets,” King said.

The senators asked Rollins for answers to a half-dozen questions on topics including the reasoning behind the cancellation, plans for food purchases and the impact the changes will have on dairy farmers and pork, chicken and turkey producers.

Paquette said Good Shepherd was notified about the TEFAP impacts this month and went to Washington, D.C., to meet with Maine’s congressional delegation, all of whom have supported the food bank’s efforts.

Good Shepherd was told to expect only 250,000 of the 500,000 pounds of food it normally gets, Paquette said, including shelf-stable boxed milk and canned vegetables.

“It’s a significant impact to our ability to achieve our mission in Maine,” Paquette said.

The reduction in food will mean the food bank has to rely more heavily on other sources of food and funding, including donations from retailers and financial donations.

But that will only go so far, she said. “We can’t fundraise our way out of this.”

She noted that as hard as the cuts will be on Good Shepherd, it will be worse for the food pantries and other programs directly providing food to Mainers.

“These organizations are looking into the eyes of the people experiencing food insecurity,” she said.