I’m the mother of two school-age children, so this time of year, my mind is cluttered with schedules of end-of-the-year performances, Little League playoffs, summer vacation reservations and just what to do with a year’s worth of school projects that are making their way home each day and piling up on my dining room table.

Last week, however, I had the privilege of being asked to attend a committee meeting in Bangor for the Good Shepherd Food Bank, which distributes 7.9 million pounds of food to agencies around the state each year and helped feed 70,000 people last year.

I heard statistics that, at least for a moment, pushed all of those other issues aside – and suddenly, hunger was on my mind.

With mills closing and businesses downsizing at every turn, food banks, pantries and soup kitchens are seeing a greater need than ever. The faces of those who are lining up for free bags of groceries or a free hot meal have changed in this state. With additional cuts threatening every state agency, the need is expected to grow even greater.

“We are seeing more and more young families. We are seeing men and women who never thought they would have to rely on a food pantry or a soup kitchen to feed their families,” said Bill Rae, executive director of Manna Inc. in Bangor.

It got me thinking about what it must feel like the first time you walk into such a place and ask for help.

“They feel the exact same way you would feel,” Rae said matter-of-factly. “There is a sense of humiliation in the beginning. They feel defeated.”

Rae reaches out to those men and women, reminding them that by coming to the food pantry or the soup kitchen, “they are taking care of their family.”

“Sometimes when you tell them that, you will see just a bit of a shine in their eye,” he said.

While the need is growing, the “season of giving” is over, Rae noted, and the cupboards of pantries everywhere are getting bare.

Right now, about 600 people a week go to Manna’s food pantry for groceries. Last year at this time, there were about 450. Another 125 people a night are getting a meal at the agency’s soup kitchen.

While donations balloon during the “guilt season” of November and December, few are thinking about the poor and the hungry when summer sun and lakeside picnics beckon.

Michelle Gosselin, director of development for the Good Shepherd Food Bank, reminded our small group last week that, in a way, the need is greater this time of year.

“You figure how many kids get a free breakfast and a free lunch at school each day. Well, now those kids are home, and the parents need to feed them three meals a day instead of one,” she said.

I called Noelle Scott, food service director for the Bangor School Department, and asked how many children that represented.

“The kids who qualify for free or reduced lunch and breakfast in Bangor is about 44 percent,” she said.

That’s more than 1,000 children in Bangor alone.

“These are kids who were getting cereal and a muffin, maybe a piece of fruit and milk for breakfast and a hot lunch every day,” Rae said.

“I guarantee you that the parents of many of these children will be giving them perhaps an orange for breakfast and telling them that that will have to do.”

A study performed by the Maine Millennium Commission on Hunger and Food Insecurity reports that one in 10 people in Maine are hungry or at risk of hunger, four in 10 Maine children under the age of 12 are hungry or at risk of hunger, and one in three jobs in Maine does not pay enough to cover the basic needs of a family.

That study was done in 2002, and one can only suspect that the problem has grown worse, at least in central and northern Maine, during the past three years.

Yet, this year, the annual U.S. Postal Service food drive, during which mail carriers pick up food left on doorsteps and hanging in bags from mailboxes around the state, did not produce nearly as much as usual in this area.

“I guess Portland’s numbers were good, but ours were way down,” Rae said. “That’s of no fault of the postal service, and we don’t know why it happened, but that food usually gets us through the end of June and into July. That didn’t happen this year.”

As a result, Manna is starting a food drive on Monday, June 20, asking anyone who is able to bring a nonperishable food item to the pantry located at the former Beal College campus in Bangor.

“We need soup, boxes of macaroni and cheese, dried pasta and canned vegetables. We have no canned vegetables right now. Ramen noodles are great because kids love them and can often fix them themselves, so they are great for summer lunches,” he said.

My kids, with friends in tow, are coming through the doors as I finish this column. I can hear them rummaging through cupboards in search of after-school snacks. I can only imagine what it would be like to tell them there is nothing for a snack and perhaps little for dinner.

Neither you nor I alone can fix this, of course, no matter how badly we may want to do so. But today, before my family and I head out for birthday and Father’s Day celebrations, I’m heading to my local food pantry with at least a small donation.

The clutter on the dining room table can wait till later.