REGION — United Way of the Tri-Valley Area (UWTVA) is directing more of its focus toward food insecurity in the Greater Franklin County region.
The organization received a three-year grant from the Betterment Fund to “address food insecurity” by learning more about the crisis.
UWTVA Food Hub Coordinator Justus Hillebrand, hired in January, is running the organization’s program funded by the grant. The program will help gain more understanding about what food insecurity looks like locally, the local dialogue, who is responding to the crisis and how UWTVA can assist in the fight.
In the six months since the program kicked off, Hillebrand said it’s quickly become clear that UWTVA can assist by connecting individuals working to end food insecurity.
UWTVA did so by hosting its first Hunger Solutions Exchange June 17. Here, community members, staff and volunteers involved in food-assistance programs gathered to connect, “learn from one another” and set action steps for collaboration to address local food insecurity, Hillebrand said.
Hillebrand said one of the most prominent discussions at the event was the “stigma” around hunger.
“Pretty much everybody in the room knew [the stigma] was a problem,” Hillebrand said. “The shame … keeps people from taking food for free, even though that’s the whole purpose of the work of food-assistance programs.”
Hillebrand said the “outcome-oriented” event also spurred work to “establish communication infrastructure beyond the phone lists, email lists” with an online discussion group in order to foster more active collaboration and outreach.
That group will be a place for discussing solutions as well as offering free food to community members in need.
Hillebrand said this event, as well as UWTVA’s overall program, is important to address the growing hunger crisis in Franklin County.
Feeding America defines food insecurity “as the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life.” Food insecurity can be driven by “unemployment, poverty, and income shocks” and cause “adverse social and health outcomes,” Feeding America states.
According to 2020 data from Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap, 11.2% of Franklin County’s population, or 3,360 people, are food insecure. Across Maine, 10.4% of people qualify as food insecure.
Even worse, that data shows 18.4% of children under the age of 18 in Franklin County are food insecure.
Hillebrand said food insecurity also particularly impacts the elderly who might lack the transportation needed to access grocery stores or food-assistance programs in a rural area like Franklin County.
“Everybody can be affected by this problem,” Hillebrand said. “But, everybody can also partake in the response to it.”
With that ability to help in mind, Hillebrand said it’s been very “rewarding … to affect change in the community” by bringing people together to think deeper about action against hunger.
With 2.5 years left in the grant program, UWTVA plans to host more Hunger Solution Exchanges while fostering more collaborations.
UWTVA and Hilllebrand are also thinking about more events such as community meals where alongside education people can receive food assistance in a way that “lessens the stigma.”
While those events are still in the works, people can find more information about the Franklin County region’s food assistance programs at https://www.uwtva.org/get-help/area-food-pantries.
Additionally, those looking to get involved in this advocacy work can contact Hillebrand at foodhub@uwtva.org
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