Manna readies new expanded quarters Program planned for drug addicts

BANGOR – The need for services that help drug addicts kick their habits is one of the reasons a local organization is moving to a sprawling old campus that used to be the city’s poor farm.

Manna Inc., perhaps best known as a food pantry and day care center, has acquired the spacious former home of Beal College off Main Street.

Manna leaders hope to open the doors to their new home by July 1. Beal College moved about a mile down Farm Road to the former Saucony building and reopened several weeks ago.

With the extra room, Manna will open Derek House, a transitional housing program for people with substance abuse problems.

“There is such a need right now in the community,” Jessica Hosford, campaign associate for Manna, said Friday. “Over 8,500 individuals in Penobscot County are in need of adult substance-abuse treatment or intervention.”

Derek is Hebrew for “new journey or direction.” Derek House will provide on-site substance-abuse counseling, job and life skills training, and job search assistance.

The program will be in the renovated 164-year-old building that used to be part of the city’s “poor farm,” built to provide housing for the city’s destitute who had nowhere else to turn.

At Derek, “they can stay for 180 days to two years and they will receive on-site counseling,” Hosford said. “It’s really a holistic approach. It’s a complete program to get people back on their feet. We’re really trying to reach the whole person, not just the substance abuse.”

There is a waiting list of more than 460 adults diagnosed with chronic substance-abuse and mental health problems in the Bangor area seeking help with their substance abuse, according to reports from the Greater Bangor Area Shelter, Wellspring Agency and Acadia Hospital, which includes a methadone clinic.

Substance abuse is often a secondary result or reaction of people with other problems, such as abuse or neglect, Hosford said. The 10-bed facility will house adult men and women in transition, and the third-floor wing will be converted into dormitory rooms.

The extra room also will allow Manna, a nonprofit corporation established in 1991, to double the size of its soup kitchen, food pantry and day care it has run since 1991. This means Jefferson Street Daycare soon will have a new home and be renamed the Little Friends Childcare.

The soup kitchen serves approximately 100 meals daily in a facility that can accommodate only 45 people. That means people eat in shifts, according to Hosford. After the move, the soup kitchen will occupy the two largest rooms on the first floor of its new multilevel home.

In addition, Penobscot Community Health Care of Bangor will staff a free health clinic for the uninsured at the location. The brick building, which is now handicapped-accessible with its elevator, also will contain a computer center, library, office space, day room, residential assistant quarters and a learning center.

“What they are trying to do is not duplicate services,” Hosford said. “We try and work in collaboration with other agencies and organizations.”

For example, the local Salvation Army operates a soup kitchen at lunchtime, so Manna offers evening meals.

Manna started 13 years ago when a local lawyer donated space and the Protein Foundation provided seed money to buy a stove, cookware and food to open a soup kitchen on Hammond Street. More recently, the program has been housed at 180 Center St.

Thirty people came for dinner at the small building the first evening in 1991. In 1994 Manna began running a food pantry and offering social service referrals.

Funding for Manna comes from individuals, civic groups, churches and campaigns. Three other foundations contribute to Manna on a regular basis: Maine Community Foundation, Martin Foundation, and the Protein Foundation.

The hammers are pounding and renovations are under way, Hosford said. Manna is less than $171,000 away from reaching its $685,000 fund-raising goal for the purchase and renovations of the building, she said.

“The big part of this is that it’s neighbors helping neighbors,” she said. “You could be helping the person next door by opening your wallet.”

For information or to contribute, contact Manna at P.O. Box 2763, Bangor 04402, or call 990-2870. Manna’s Web site is: www.mannainc.net.