BRUNSWICK, Maine — After four years of serving only the Bath community, the city's YMCA "Veggie Van" has now expanded to tackle the food gap in Brunswick.
The service initially started in hopes of eliminating food insecurity for students who regularly relied on cafeteria meals during the school year.
"It's important to us to come into the community and provide those meals so that there aren't kids wondering where their next meal is," Jennifer Connelie, who helps to run the service, said.
Through the help of federal money and a recent grant from the non-profit Full Plates Full Potential, six new stops have been added to the van's route.
Monday through Friday from June 17 through August 23, anyone can walk up to the van and pick up a meal, no questions asked.
"You can eat them wherever the stop is, you can eat them at home, you can even take them to the beach with you," Connelie said.
The new stops will also be able to support the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Program (MHPP), which serves the town of Brunswick. By working together, MHPP will now be able to continue to strengthen its food programs.
During the van's first two weeks in Brunswick, Connelie said the van served 4,000 meals.
"This year, we're probably looking at an additional eight thousand [meals served] at least in Brunswick, if not more," Connelie added.
At a stop along the Curtis Memorial Library, Journey and her grandmother Jodi Foster were able to pick up a lunch from the van. Jodi said seeing her granddaughter and other kids get excited about the lunches is a good sight.
"We feel very, very lucky...very, very blessed to be here in Brunswick," Foster said.