UNE community will pack 150,000 meals for Maine’s food insecure on Sept. 17

The University of New England will once again host its “Meals for Maine” hunger relief event on Wednesday, Sept. 17, in which community volunteers will package and distribute a staggering 150,000 nonperishable meal kits in hopes of tackling food insecurity and meeting Maine’s goal to end hunger in the state by 2030. 

Launched in 2023, the now-annual Meals for Maine event is part of September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance events taking place throughout the country to unite people in the spirit of service and memory of the 9/11 terror attacks. 

The University is again one of only a handful of schools nationwide to receive funding to support the meal-kit initiative from the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance organization, with support from federal AmeriCorps funds — and is one of the smallest of such institutions nationally to be recognized for its efforts to stop hunger in its tracks.

Last year’s event brought together hundreds of volunteers from across UNE’s student, faculty, and professional staff populations to assemble 103,000 meals — more than double its 2023 number — for distribution across Maine.

The University’s Office of Service Learning, Office of Student Engagement, Division of Student Life, Undergraduate Student Government, and Graduate and Professional Student Association aim to bring together more than 350 total volunteers across both campuses to assemble the meal kits.

Meal kits will be distributed across Maine with a focus on reaching older adults, children, New Mainer families, and other vulnerable groups in collaboration with local relief and housing organizations. The Maine Masonic Charitable Foundation will additionally distribute 175 boxes of food across the state through its Masonic Lodges.

UNE students engaged in service-learning will have the opportunity to cook meals with recipients through partnerships with the Dempsey Center and Westbrook Housing, where they will also educate program participants in modifying and extending meals for future consumption. 

UNE Director of Service-Learning Trisha Mason, M.A., said she hopes the University’s annual commitment to making a meaningful impact on the health and welfare of the state’s communities inspires members of the University community to participate.

“Last year’s turnout showed how UNE rallies when our neighbors need us,” Mason said. By continuing to increase the number of meals our community assembles year over year, we are showing that UNE is committed to advancing community well-being while giving our students hands-on experience in addressing complex public health challenges.”

Meal assembly will take place in Biddeford from 2 to 5 p.m. Volunteers will gather at 1:30 p.m. in the Campus Center gymnasium, located at 11 Hills Beach Road. Register to volunteer in Biddeford

Volunteers in Portland will convene at 5 p.m. in Girard Innovation Hall on UNE’s Portland Campus for the Health Sciences, located at 716 Stevens Ave., where assembly will run until 8 p.m. Register to volunteer in Portland

UNE is among the few independent universities with a comprehensive health education mission, encompassing medicine, pharmacy, dental medicine, nursing, physician assistant studies, the allied health professions, and planetary health — with the majority of its health professions located on the only designated collaborative health sciences campus of its kind in Northern New England. 

Through a nationally renowned approach to interprofessional education, the Portland Campus for the Health Sciences cultivates a future-focused model for preparing health professionals equipped to meet the evolving needs of patients, communities, care systems, and the biotechnology workforce in Maine and across the nation. 

Mason said the Meals for Maine event follows this philosophy, continuing to position UNE at the forefront of tackling food insecurity from a public health perspective — and by integrating students from all areas of study — in line with UNE’s mission to improve the health of people, communities, and the natural world. 

“Access to nutritious food is fundamental to health, and food insecurity undermines both individual wellness and the resilience of our communities and environment,” she said.

That public health approach to holistic human health is reflected in UNE’s recent launch of a new School of Public and Planetary Health, which examines global health through the united expertise of faculty in the University’s six academic colleges — including public health, business, public policy, and marine and environmental programs — to prepare students to be systems-level thinkers in addressing interconnected environmental and human health challenges.

“Through initiatives like Meals for Maine and our new School of Public and Planetary Health, UNE is preparing team-oriented problem-solvers who take on the systems that drive hunger, from distribution to policy, and partner across Maine to help achieve the state’s 2030 goal to end hunger," Mason remarked.