WINSLOW, Maine — Organizers running the Winslow Community Cupboard are still assessing the damage after last week's storm left them with broken appliances and thousands of pounds of wasted food.
"Everything was down. We had no power anywhere around, so no one could get a hold of us," Assistant Director Steve Bolduc recalled about last Tuesday when overflow from the Kennebec River started to creep toward their parking lot across the street.
The morning before, the cupboard received a routine shipment of produce from Good Shepherd Food Bank, which mostly lives out of two refrigerated trailers as a part of its traveling program.
By the time organizers could get to the cupboard Wednesday, Director Bruce Bottiglierie said the damage had already been done.
"All we could do is stand up on Augusta Road where we could oversee the back of the property and we just watched the trailers float in water," Bottiglierie said.
While the cupboard's main building was saved, more than 26,000 pounds of produce was strewn in nearby woods behind the building.
As well, multiple electronics and appliances the cupboard uses to organize and store produce were also damaged.
With around 250 families reaching about 12 surrounding towns relying on the cupboard for groceries, folks have been cleaning up the wreckage since to help restart operations.
"You know, it's still a bit messy and I really don't want to serve people on how ugly it's looking around here, but I still have thirty-six hours to get this place clean," Bottiglierie said. "So it was a race against time to clean everything up, get it scoured, disinfected."
In the meantime, the cupboard is asking for help from the community in any way that they can, and is hosting a cleanup day on Wednesday before regular cupboard hours open on Thursday.