More families turning to food assistance as winter tightens budgets

For many families and seniors in Aroostook County, winter brings more than cold temperatures; it brings tough financial decisions. Paying for heat, electricity, medication, and food at the same time is increasingly difficult. And local food assistance officials say they’re seeing that pressure firsthand.

“I know people who worry, every time it snows, how they’re going to afford to have their driveway plowed or their walkway shoveled or whatever the case may be. Those are all challenges that people here in the county face, especially in the wintertime,” says Dixie Shaw, the Special Projects Coordinator at Catholic Charities Maine and Hunger and Relief Services.