If shopping at Damariscotta Hannaford’s, please remember that St. Philip’s Help Yourself Shelf Food Pantry in Wiscasset is eager for people to buy reusable shopping bags for a cause. At $2.50 per bag, the pantry receives $1 for each bag bought. Not only will you be helping feed our food insecure population, but will also be helping the environment by keeping the single use bags out of the waste stream: a win-win, for sure.

The Help Yourself Shelf at St. Philip’s in Wiscasset is open each Thursday from 3:30 to 5:30 for drive-by assistance. For emergencies, people can call the Church office at 882-7647, leaving a message including a phone number, or by messaging the Pantry via its Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/HelpYourselfShelfFoodPantry/

With the wonderful support from Hannaford’s and Shaw’s, as well as First Congregational Church, many businesses, people and groups, the Help Yourself Shelf is able to provide generous boxes and bags of nutritious supplies each Thursday. While the Shelf does not have a regular delivery system for those unable to come to the Pantry, contact us via phone or messaging, and we will set something up.

 The Help Yourself Shelf began as a bookshelf at the back of the church over 40 years ago and has grown steadily to include several storerooms, refrigerators and freezers as it endeavors to help those needing a hand up, not a hand out. Especially at this time when so many of us have, through not fault of our own, found ourselves without jobs and struggling to get by, Help Yourself Shelf is here for you, just as those who buy their Bags-for-a-Cause while shopping at Damariscotta Hannaford will be there helping us.