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The Wabanaki Mobile Food Pantry is a food truck that delivers food to tribal communities. There is no cost to the community for this service. The goal of the Wabanaki Traditional Foods Mobile Food Pantry is to increase the access to healthy, traditional, and nutritious foods. The foods provided through the Wabanaki Traditional Foods Mobile Food Pantry are intended to supplement the tribal food pantries with traditional foods, as well as provide a mobile unit that has the space to store large amounts of foods when the community requests a need or when Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness (WPHW) procures large quantities of healthy and nutritious food. The mobile food pantry is intended to supplement the resources of the food pantry and not take the places of the tribal food pantries.
The Wabanaki Mobile Food Pantry truck will park 30 minutes prior to distribution time. The site coordinator will help unload and set-up. Products are set out on the tables for people to choose from. Once the distribution begins, tribal/community members can choose items they need, packing their own bags as they go along. The site coordinator will be stationed behind the tables to restock items as needed.
The mobile food pantry will make regular scheduled deliveries to each of the five tribal communities in Maine. The pantry will meet the needs of tribal members where they are located, including those in tribal recovery homes and peer centers located outside of the tribal communities.
Food will be distributed on a monthly schedule, subject to change according to the needs of each community.
The Wabanaki Mobile Food Pantry distribution is scheduled for 1 ½ hours. Distribution may be longer if there are still tribal/community members who are waiting to be served. The Wabanaki Traditional Foods Mobile Food Pantry will arrive a half hour prior to the start of the distribution to set up.
The Wabanaki Traditional Foods Mobile Food Pantry will distribute healthy and nutritious foods such as fresh produce, water, and traditional foods. Examples of some traditional foods that will be distributed, but are not limited to, are fiddleheads, corn, beans, squash, wild rice, fish, etc.
The Wabanaki Traditional Foods Mobile Food Pantry is funded through grants received by WPHW.
Any tribal/community member is welcome to attend the food distribution. All food is free.
WPHW advertises the Wabanaki Traditional Foods Mobile Food Pantry. WPHW will post information and schedules on social media, web, and will post fliers in tribal communities and other places with tribal members. A sandwich board sign will also be placed at the distribution site, 3 days prior, listing starting date and time of the distribution.
We will track a running total of how many people are served for our reporting as well as future reference to determine appropriate amounts of food to distribute to each community.
Leftover product will remain with WPHW and/or the tribal food pantries for future distributions. In the event that the tribal food pantries cannot take in all of the remaining product due to space constraints, WPHW will donate the product to a partner agency/organization.
