New Neighbors in Need of "Daily Bread"
"If we don't bring food, they aren't eating that night," Christina Ekholm states. Christina is one of our Program Coordinators in Portland and has been increasingly involved in aiding the hundreds of families that are currently housed in various South Portland hotels.
For most of this past year, 1600 - 2000 asylum-seekers have been residing within hotels across South Portland, Portland, Freeport and Auburn. Although these families originate from several African nations, most are from Angola or Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), however their path to the United State's northeastern-most state was anything but direct. For many, their journey took them to Brazil and spanned as many as 14 countries before arriving in Maine.
Maine is known to be a safe haven for these families and our General Assistance budgets allow for housing and food support for immigrants - a unique kind of assistance among most US States. Due to immigration law, asylum-seekers are not permitted to earn income until after at least 180 days and in most cases it takes much longer. Once they can gain employment, they find housing in Southern Maine either too expensive or unavailable. A few families have been living in the hotels for over 12 months, others for 60 days or less and some have been in the city shelter for only a few weeks.
The hotels are isolated, making access grocery stores limited. On the rare occasion a family can make to a grocery store, the hotel rooms provide little more than microwaves and maybe a rice cooker for food preparation. The immediate need became clear - food. But not just food in general - food for today. These new arrivals into Maine are literally in need of their "daily bread."
One organization had been working responding to this need since early 2022. Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition (MIRC) starting preparing culturally appropriate meals in small kitchens in the hotels. It soon became clear that another larger space for meal preparation was needed.
The commercial kitchen in the first floor of our Portland location was a perfect spot. Our team at The Root Cellar was happy to parter with MIRC and offered our kitchen as a home for their meal prep activities. Since the spring, 500-650 meals have been prepped and packaged each day, 6 days per week. The food is prepared by a team of contracted cooks from the communities they are serving - primarily Angola.
I spoke with Madeline Saucier, Program and Community Engagement Manager with MIRC about the importance of this partnership. "We cannot do this work without the support of the Root Cellar team. The Root Cellar's commercial kitchen is the heart of our operations; it is where we receive and store thousands of pounds of donated food items, where our contracted chefs prepare meals, and where volunteers pack and pick up meals for delivery to hotels, six nights per week. The Root Cellar team is truly generous of spirit!"
The truth is, we couldn't do this work with out the cooks and staff of MIRC either. Working together to address so many significant and daily needs is an answer to prayer - that God would provide the "daily bread" needed for the hundreds of families.
The food preparation created a new logistical need - delivery. This quickly became a project of Christina Ekholm after she was hired in June. Christina oversees and organizes the delivery of 165 meals each day to Motel 6 in South Portland. There are another 350 to 400 meals delivered each day to 2 or 3 other hotels through other means.
Christina explains that "the meals consist of fufu, rice, green and orange side dish, pondu' (green side dish served with plantains) Beans, and local produce. Chicken and salted fish, beef, make up the proteins." For these families that are so far from home, the meals are a blessing, "It's a taste of home," Christina says. "Something stable in an unstable environment."
Christina relies on volunteers from local churches to deliver the food each day, but finding volunteers has been a huge challenge. "People are busy, they want to donate money and clothing, but many don't want to give their time."
The perception of these families has become a challenge to volunteer recruitment. Immigration is a hot button topic, but we have noticed each side of the argument seems to avoid these specific families in the hotels. "Many are sympathetic to asylum-seekers, but others treat these families as a political position," Christina remarks. "Most want to ask, 'Should they be here?', instead of asking how can we care for them since they are already here."
Since joining The Root Cellar 10 years ago, I have noticed that many have strong opinions about the neighbors we serve, but few know them. I asked Christina to describe these families in her own words. Below is her response.
"I always describe these families as my favorite people. I have learned so much from them about honor and respect. They are incredibly grateful, several tell me that they pray for me every night. They are in a situation where they need every blessing possible, yet they are constantly blessing others. Often, 'God bless you' is one of the first phrases learned in English. They have nothing physical to give, but freely distribute the blessings of God."
Each family is offering this blessing, having experienced great pain as well. The story of Gerda that we posted a few weeks ago is just one of thousands in our state today. Christina recalls one man's story of his journey to America, "He would walk 2 miles ahead each day to make sure the path was safe for his wife and toddler. He would then walk 2 miles back to his family, pick up his toddler and carry him for 2 miles." Again - this is just one of thousands of stories of resilience, but it's more than just human strength that kept these families safe against insurmountable odds. Spend a little time with them, and you will notice that their faith in Christ is always on their lips. It's the faith, hope and love of Jesus that has sustained them and led them to their new home.
Christina leaves us with a reflection of how she is seeking God at work each day.
"Many days, I experience the Kingdom in Motel 6 more than on Sunday mornings. It's what we are supposed to do. When someone who is lacking receives something out of generosity we experience the presence of God. The blessing isn't just in the receiving - it's in the giving as well."