News & Events

Thanks to two very generous donors who created a matching gift challenge- any donation
received through the end of June will be matched dollar for dollar up to $50,000. This will
mean a total of $100,000 towards our new building campaign, bringing us closer to reaching
our goal! Will you help bring Loaves & Fishes home with a gift to the campaign? This is truly
a community effort where every gift counts. Double your impact by making a donation
today. Thank you!

We're grateful to our media partners for helping build awareness about our new building
campaign, our matching gift challenge and our mission - to eliminate food insecurity in
Hancock County.

Our friends at Star 97.7 helped kick off our Matching GIft Challenge on the May 9 Morning
Show. Then, Newscenter Maine visited us at 137 Downeast Highway to talk about the
dollar-for-dollar match and our plans for the new building - you can watch the story here.
WDEA AM 1370 has tirelessly promoted tours of our future home. Maine Concerns [link to
interview file] overed our service offering and plans for the future. And, the Ellsworth
American published this article on the rising tide of food insecurity in our community, with
insights from Andy Matthews.

Our new home has the best neighbors ever -- Darling's Chevrolet! We are grateful for their presentation of a $60,000 gift to the pantry's capital campaign! The Darling's name and logo will appear on the community garden, the kitchen and boardroom. We are excited to forge this partnership and to have Darling's right next door!

Exalted Ruler Eric Hoard from Ellsworth Elks Lodge #2743 presented Ken Hoogerhyde, Loaves & Fishes' Pantry Manger and Board Memver the Spotlight Grant of $2000.00 for Renovations in their new building. We are incredibly grateful to for their generous support of our new building campaign.

Our winter newsletter is hot off the presses. Learn about exciting projects planned for the year and how you can get involved. Please subscribe if you don't already.

WABI.tv visits our new building- you can watch the story here. You can read the story by Rebecca Alley in the Ellsworth American here. Stay tuned to Star 97.7 for clips from an interview with Andy Matthews about the new building.

As an all-volunteer organization we could not possibly accomplish all we do without our volunteers. We want to acknowledge three of our stalwart volunteers who have become an essential part of our operations. All three started off volunteering a day or two to try things out and before long they became an integral part of our team. They each go out of their way to support our vision and mission for this work - sharing their time and talent whenever asked!

Dave Schnebeck is from Highlands Ranch, CO where he had a 43 year career in retail (sporting goods) before retiring to to Ellsworth, Maine.

Cherie Longo, after finishing a long career in hospital administration, retired to Trenton from Gardiner to be closer to one of her children and her grandchildren.

Tom Berglewicz, a native of Connecticut, was stationed in Southwest Harbor in the Coast Guard and chose to make Maine his permanent home.

If you see Dave, Cherie or Tom around town we hope you'll take a moment and thank them for their help!

Thanks to the Rotary Club of Ellsworth, Ellsworth Hannaford, Star 97, the Interact students and of course our stalwart volunteers for making this event a big success! We collected a substantial amount of food, as well as $2,400 in donations at last Saturday's food drive at Hannaford. This is an increase over last year's event-onward and upward!