Feed St. Mary’s, a dedicated Food Bank for St. Mary’s County, was established to provide a reliable and sustainable source of food for some 12 operational soup kitchens and food pantries within St. Mary’s County. Feed St. Mary’s officially started conducting business in March 2020.
On March 20, Feed St. Mary’s, received its first delivery of food from its partner, the Maryland Food Bank. All of the food delivered to Feed St. Mary’s is destined to support organizations on the front-lines of relieving food insecurity in St. Mary’s County. A planned celebration signaling the initial delivery of food was postponed out of abundant caution to support social distancing. In light of the developing food crisis we are now facing, the fully equipped food bank has opened just in time.
Similar to established food banks in neighboring counties, Feed St. Mary’s is unique to St. Mary’s County because it provides support to the food pantries and soup kitchens rather than directly to individuals . The first two pantry partners from St. Mary’s County to join the Maryland Food Bank and Feed St. Mary’s are the Church of Ascension Food Pantry and the Good Samaritan Bread of Life Food Pantry. The orders placed directly with the Maryland Food comprised the first delivery to the Feed St. Mary’s Food Bank.
Upon receipt of pallets of healthy food, Feed St. Mary’s promptly split the orders for further distribution. All of this was done locally with no added overhead. In a collaborative effort to provide immediate relief to the escalating food crisis, the Maryland Food Bank added additional food to help jump-start food distribution in St. Mary’s County. The donated food is made available to pantries and soup kitchens in need of extra food.
While off to a solid beginning, the Feed St. Mary’s team is moving quickly to assist other pantries and soup kitchens interested in joining the partnership. The team will assist all potential partners with the application process. Organizations interested in starting a pantry are also encouraged to contact Feed St. Mary’s for assistance. Feed St. Mary’s is poised to grow quickly.
Feed St. Mary’s occupies a 3,000 square foot storefront at 46041 Signature Lane, Great Mills, Maryland (the old McKay’s Store location). The warehouse is fully outfitted with all necessary pallet handling and storage equipment. It contains a large walk-in cooler and refrigeration unit.
Organizations that provide food directly to people in need or anyone interested in monetarily supporting the partnership should contact Feed St. Mary’s directly via [email protected] or by calling 240-237-8297. Financial contributions may be made online to feedstmarys.org or mailed to P.O. Box 212, Lexington Park, MD 20653. Checks may be made out to the Lexington Park Rotary Foundation with an annotation for Feed St. Mary’s.
