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Christina grew up knowing how to stretch a dollar, and how it felt to go without.

Christina brushed her teeth with bottled water her senior year of high school because her family didn’t have running water. Her mom made spaghetti stretch with just a few pieces of chicken for Christina and her three brothers, not realizing until much later how much creativity and care that took.

“I’ve spent my life in and out of poverty,” Christina says. “When you grow up that way, even when things are going well, you’re always wondering if it’s all going to fall apart.”

Still, Christina persisted. She earned her Associate’s Degree in 2014, riding the city bus for hours while she was eight months pregnant just to get to class. She and her partner were working hard, but even working full time, food was hard to come by. After their second child was born during the pandemic, the challenge only deepened. With no car and no income, they relied on family members to pick up groceries from food pantries and even, heartbreakingly, choosing to go without so their children could eat.

That’s where you made a difference. Because of your generosity, Christina’s family had a pantry to turn to when they had nowhere else to go. You helped fill their cupboards when there was nothing left. You gave Christina the most important thing of all: a reminder that she wasn’t alone.

“Your gift isn’t just food. It’s hope,” she says. “It was a huge relief knowing someone was out there helping.”

Today, Christina and her partner are both working. She recently completed our Community Advocates Training and now works as a Community Support Professional for her uncle who has Down syndrome. Her family also receives food from the Maine-Endwell School District’s M-EALS program, which partners with the Food Bank to source food. This helps stretch their family’s budget, but they still feel the weight of uncertainty.

“We don’t have a huge savings. If something happened, we couldn’t cover it. But we’re doing the best we can,” she says.

What stands out most about Christina is not her hardship, it’s her strength. Her story is not one of struggle alone, but of perseverance, love, resourcefulness, and the courage to keep trying, no matter what.

“I would not be the same person without years of therapy,” she reflects. “Life is hard for everyone. It’s really all in how you deal with it, what you do with it, that matters.”

This article was part of our Fall 2025 Harvester newsletter, click here to view.