Full Plates Full Potential, Maine’s only statewide child hunger organization, is proud to announce the Lincoln County 2019 16 County Summer Grant Competition winner. Healthy Lincoln County will receive a $500 Summer Meals Program Grant to support their 2020 summer program. Full Plates’ 16 County Summer Grant Competition was launched to highlight the critical work summer food programs do reaching the over 80,000 children who rely on school meals for basic nutrition.

“We are so proud of the Healthy Lincoln County summer meals program. This summer they served 11,598 reimburseable meals which is an increase of 1,669, or 17%, over 2018” said Anna Korsen, Full Plates Full Potential’s program director. “Summer is an extremely challenging time for children affected by hunger. Our 16 County Grant Program aims to showcase and reward the best of summer programs across our state.”

“There were several factors that we feel made our 2019 summer meal program successful. We had several new sites, as well as our first ever mobile meal site as a pilot project. Additionally, our partnerships are a huge element of our success. Working with several partners, we identified three neighborhoods to bring meals via "Lulu the Lunch Wagon" - a small cargo trailer that we drove from one neighborhood to the next serving meals. We were also able to bring the mobile meal unit to two back-to-school events for families and serve kids a free meal. We hope to expand our reach with our mobile unit to other interested neighborhoods this summer!” said Kate Martin of Healthy Lincoln County.

Maine 2019 Summer Stats: Maine has 122 Summer Food Service Programs with 467 meal sites across the state. This summer, 727,612 meals were served statewide.

About Full Plates Full Potential: Full Plates Full Potential is on a mission to end child hunger in Maine by partnering with nonprofit advocates, local businesses and restaurants, advocating for policy changes at the state level, granting funds and providing technical assistance to schools and hosting year-around events and fundraisers. Learn more at www.fullplates.org