Michelle Williams, right, organizer of Mexico's Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen, holds up a banner with volunteer Robin McKenna on Tuesday at Calvin Lyons Hall, 134 Main St., Mexico. Area residents can pick up hot meals at the hall on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Starting Sept. 1, hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times
Mexico — when Mexican Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen The organizer, Michelle, started it.lLe Williams had just $1,000 in donations to spend. Now, Emergency Food Pantries and Soup Houses teeth It is a non-profit 501C organization under the jurisdiction of Mexico City and is permitted to receive grants and donations.
Williams started the food pantry in November 2023 after noticing a need in the community for homeless, elderly and “low-income people who really just needed a friendly place to come,” she told The Rumford Falls Times at the Calvin Lyons Hall soup kitchen on Tuesday.
When the food pantry first started, Williams used her own money and small donations to purchase food baskets.
“I reached out to the public. People just need to do what they can. This is not a wealthy area. I'm very frugal, so I spend my money wisely. And people noticed what I was doing and they noticed a change,” Williams said.
Since becoming a nonprofit earlier this year, she has been contacted by Peruvian native Peter Weinhold, who applied for a $4,000 grant on her behalf from his foundation, the Peter and Christine Weinhold Charitable Foundation.
Williams said the group received a grant from Friends of River Valley and significant donations from the River Valley Rotary Club and Oxford Federal Credit Union.
Walmart has also given “significant support” to food pantries, even though it knows the pantries are not affiliated with the Good Shepherd Food Bank and do not receive discounts from the organization on items like meat and baked goods.
The reason is Mexican The Good Samaritan Williams said the reason they are not partnering with Good Shepherd is because there is no lockable interior to the pantry hall and there are regulations that say other food pantries partnering with Good Shepherd cannot be within a certain distance of each other.
Williams and Robin McKenna, a volunteer who has worked alongside Williams at the food pantry and soup kitchen since it first opened, expected about 60 people to show up on Tuesday, a day when foot traffic is usually slower because some people are not used to the soup kitchen being open and it's raining, Williams said.
Williams is in charge of all the cooking except for dessert, which McKenna makes, and Tuesday's menu included hot homemade vegetable beef soup, chicken and tuna salad sandwiches, potato salad, pasta salad, fresh vegetables with hummus, and cookies and frosted brownies for dessert.
The two women met when Williams decided to prepare Thanksgiving baskets for those in need last November and McKenna showed up at her home with five frozen turkeys and offered to help.
“We had about 65 to 70 families participate and raised enough money to give out Thanksgiving baskets,” Williams said, after which the couple began collecting donations and food for Christmas baskets.
Megan Beal of Mexico eats a meal with her daughter, Addie Miller, on Tuesday at Mexico's Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen in Calvin Lyons Hall, 134 Main St. Residents in the area can pick up hot meals at the hall on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Starting Sept. 1, hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Marianne Hutchinson/Rumford Falls Times
Then, in December 2023, devastating floods hit the area, causing hundreds of local residents to lose power and evacuate their homes due to flooding.
During the flood, Williams rescued all the food in the pantry and in the hallway, and she and McKenna provided 100 Christmas meals and delivered food bags to an additional 110 families from the emergency pantry, she said.
When asked why she spends about 60 unpaid hours a week distributing food, Williams replied, “This might seem weird, but I've always been a giver, not a taker.” She added that she didn't want to sound like a Bible-thumper, but that the Holy Spirit is “pushing me on.”
“I sat in bed one night and thought, what can I do to keep myself busy, because I'm used to working, giving, doing,” she mused after retiring from nursing in 2022.
“Robin and I are both former nurses, so when people come in they know we treat everyone like family. We don't care what your living situation is. We don't care if you're rich or poor, dirty or clean. We treat everyone equally,” Williams said.
McKenna has spent about 55 hours volunteering at the food pantry, and she does it because she loves helping others. “I'm an outgoing person, I worked in healthcare, I worked with seniors and people in need, and it's just something I have to do,” she said.
Mexican Good Samaritan Soup Kitchen Soup kitchen meals will be served Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 11am to 4pm at Calvin Lions Hall, 134 Main St., Mexico. Beginning September 1, the hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am to 4pm.
To volunteer or donate, contact Williams at 207-418-1265 or visit the organization's Facebook page, “Mexico Good Samaritan.”
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