Portland / Maine / United States
Meet our Staff. Take a moment to meet the dedicated staff who run Wayside Food Programs How Wayside started, grew and changed: Wayside is a non-profit effort with ecumenical roots that was established in 1986 to serve hot meals 3 nights a week by a group of committed area churches. Wayside Soup Kitchen ultimately grew to be Maines largest soup kitchen. Over time, Wayside expanded the meals program at the Oxford Street kitchen to include service of lunch and dinner, 7 days and nights a week. A greater number of churches, synagogues, individuals, civic and youth groups were recruited to compassionately volunteer their time to help prepare and serve nutritious meals to the homeless and others living in poverty and struggling to make ends meet. Today, volunteers help WAYSIDE serve Supplemental Community Meals at multiple host serving sites located at the heart of impoverished neighborhoods. Wherever possible, all meals are prepared from donated food. The preparation, service and cleanup of meals are supervised by well-trained WAYSIDE staff and a mass of volunteers from the Greater Portland community and beyond. Volunteers provide the "people power" that is critical to the success of Wayside accomplishing the work of feeding the growing number of hungry people. Through the years, WAYSIDE staff and volunteers have made connections with many generous food donors. When it became apparent ( 1999 ), that enough food was available and might have gone to waste, Wayside launched its Food Rescue Program. Wayside began to systematically collect food from a growing number of grocers, processors, restaurants & wholesalers, and then equitably redistribute it to a food agency network of pantries, soup kitchens and group homes. Initially food was collected and dropped off at agencies from the back of a truck. Today WAYSIDE FOOD RESCUE has warehouse space in Portland, Maine and continues to distribute food, free of charge, to over 65-plus food programs throughout Cumberland County. FOOD RESCUE contracted with the USDA, United States Department of Agriculture in 1999 to distribute food commodities through The Emergency Food Assistance Program to qualifying agencies. Funding: WAYSIDE has historically relied on the generosity of the community to support the critical activities of feeding the hungry. The majority of funds are contributed by individuals who can appreciate the worries of someone who faces tough decisions of where the food will come from to feed children or themselves. WAYSIDE also depends on the stewardship of private foundations and Church Mission Groups as well as, the committed interests of the business sector. Municipal and Federal funding streams also contribute to WAYSIDES mission of ensuring that all people have access to the food they need. These funding sources include: The United Way of Greater Portland, Cumberland County Human Services Grant, United States Department of Agriculture, The Emergency Food Assistance Program and the City of Portlands Community Development Block Grant. Each of these funding sources plays a critical role in the sustainability of WAYSIDES FOOD PROGRAMS ability to address the basic need of providing emergency and supplemental food. Fiscal Year 2009/20I0 has been a year of change for WAYSIDE. The Soup Kitchen meals model came to the end of an era. WAYSIDE embraced the change by meeting with community stakeholders to identify service gaps preventing residents and diverse populations from accessing critically needed food to feed themselves or their families. Gaps were identified, the Supplemental Community Meals Model was defined, collaborations and partnerships identified and host community sites strategically opened.
