Partners
The pantry works hand in hand with both partner service organizations and local businesses to advance our mission.
About Our Partners
Partnerships are a critical aspect of the pantry’s mission and operations. We know we can’t solve food insecurity alone; working together, we are able to have a greater impact.
Vose Library
The Vose Library is located on Common Road in Union, Maine. More than just a book lender, the library is a hub of communication and support within our community. In addition to providing a quiet place to read, they offer various workshops, yoga classes, book club meetings, yarn and stitch craft circles, LEGO building workshops and more. A nature walk is available on the library grounds. Vose kindly hosts drop-off bins for non-perishable food donations to our pantry. We very much appreciate their partnership and support.
Peoples United Methodist Church
The Peoples United Methodist Church in Union has a stated goal to collectively, with their minister, look out for each other and support each other in many ways. And that they do: thoughtfully, generously and frequently. Their compassion is not limited to their communicants but is extended widely throughout our community. Come Spring Food Pantry gets generous donations on almost a weekly basis throughout the year. We love seeing their members pull up in our parking lot because they have become much more than donors to us. We are very grateful for their presence in our community.
Camden Lions Club
The stated purpose of Lions Club groups is to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace, and promote international understanding. Founded in 1917, the organization’s core motto is “We Serve” with a primary focus on addressing community needs, supporting the visually impaired and assisting the disadvantaged. We at Come Spring Food Pantry can attest to the success of the Camden Lions Club members in successfully addressing Mid-coast Maine’s community needs and assisting the disadvantaged. Throughout the year, on a frequent basis, we receive food and monetary donations from them, usually the result of fund-raising efforts performed by them on our behalf. We are enormously grateful for the support of the Camden Lions Club.
Borealis Breads
Borealis Breads is an employee-owned business that bakes delicious artisan breads using all-natural ingredients and no preservatives. Multiple times per month, one of our volunteers stops in at Borealis’s Waldoboro location where Pam, the manager, bags up dozens of loaves of their freshly baked bread for us to take back for our neighbors. Aroostook Wheat, Anadama, Rosemary, Pumpkin Raisin, Sourdough, Italian, French Peasant, Multi-Grain, Olive, Cinnamon Raison, Rye, French Baguettes, Par-baked Focaccia, Yeast Dinner Rolls: take your pick! Our neighbors spend a lot of time at our Borealis Bread display, carefully selecting the varieties that they want to take home.
Athena
Since 1997, athenahealth has been simplifying complexity for ambulatory healthcare practices and the patients they serve. athenagives is athenahealth’s global corporate social responsibility program whose mission includes, among other things, improved food security. Not only has our pantry received some very generous grants from anthenaGives but at least semiannually a small team of athenahealth volunteers comes to our pantry to assist with project work. We so appreciate athenahealth and their employees who actualize their corporate mission statements.
Erickson Fields
Erickson Fields is a former dairy farm in Rockport, Maine, that features trails and a large community garden where food is grown for the local community. Four acres are dedicated to farming by the “Teen Ag Crew”, local youth who grow, tend and harvest tens of thousands of pounds of fresh produce for local food pantries every year, free of charge. We cannot tell you how thankful we and our neighbors are for the large amount of fresh, nutritious produce we receive from Erickson Fields every year.
Good Shepherd Food Bank
The Good Shepherd Food Bank is the largest hunger relief organization in the state of Maine, providing surplus and purchased food to more than 400 non-profit organizations throughout the state. The Come Spring Food Pantry is one of their partner agencies. Good Shepherd does more than just provide food: they partner with healthcare providers to connect patients to food and other resources, sponsor programs for meal support after school, on weekends, and during vacations, and more. Good Shepherd is a vital resource for our pantry as well as our state.
Green Meadow Farm
Green Meadow Farm is a 180-acre farm located in Union, Maine. Green Meadow Farm is a “Forever Farm,” which means that the farm will remain as a farm for future generations to continue to farm. Their pastures and hay fields are classified as Prime Farmland by the USDA (land with the best physical and chemical characteristics for producing high-yield food, feed, fiber, forage, and oilseed crops with minimum inputs). Not only does Green Meadow Farm donate their prime, high-value grass-fed beef and pork, but they donate plowing services to our pantry in addition. The proprietors, Skip and Karen, do all of this quietly, never seeking publicity or acknowledgement.
Shaws
Shaws Supermarkets is one of the oldest continuously operated supermarket chains in the nation, founded in 1860 in Maine. Every week, we receive a donation from the Rockland Shaws, comprised of fresh meat and produce, dry groceries, personal hygiene products and more. These donations allow us to offer food and other products that would not otherwise be available to our neighbors. We are very grateful for the strong support we receive from Shaws.
Wandering Goat
The Wandering Goat farm, located in Union, Maine, keeps us pretty much permanently stocked with their gentle, hydrating goat’s milk soap. Their soaps are produced in small batches, using ingredients of the finest quality. Fresh goat’s milk from their farm is used as the base and it is blended with organic herbs, spices and oils. The result is a wonderfully pure, fragrant and versatile soap that our neighbors love. Wandering Goat has also donated their equally special body lotions in the past. The well-stocked shelf of Wandering Goat’s soap is a favorite stop for our neighbors at the pantry.
