AUGUSTA -- A Blaine House dinner scheduled for May 6 will focus on the problem of childhood hunger in Maine.

Gov. John Baldacci and first lady Karen Baldacci have invited about 20 people to the governor's mansion for dinner and a discussion about the issue.

"We're not going to wait for Washington," Karen Baldacci said. "We're going to take action steps in our communities."

The Southern Maine chapter of a national group called Share Our Strength approached the governor's office in March to ask for a meeting. The first lady said the governor sent them over to the Blaine House to discuss the possibility of putting a dinner together.

Susan Rockefeller, a Portland attorney who serves on the board of Share Our Strength, said they are interested in extending the reach of their group beyond southern Maine.

"We want to kick the conversation up another level and have people involved with ending childhood hunger work better together," said Rockefeller, one of the Share Our Strength board members who will attend the dinner.

Karen Baldacci said part of her work as first lady is to help people make connections. She said the Blaine House dinner is a way to get central players in one room to share a meal and begin to plan a strategy for ending childhood hunger.

She said all the food for the dinner will be donated and that three chefs have volunteered their time to cook for the event. No taxpayer money will be used to fund the evening, she said.

According to the invitation, chefs Jeff Landry of Eve's at the Garden in Portland, Lee Skawinski of Cinque Terra in Portland, and Rich Hansen of Cleonice Mediterranean Bistro in Ellsworth will prepare the food.

Baldacci said she invited Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel Opinion Page Editor Naomi Schalit because of an award-winning series Schalit wrote last year that focused on hunger in Maine.

"Naomi had a wonderful series, but the question is, what's next?" Baldacci said.

Another invitee is Richard Small, executive director of Good Shepherd Food Bank, which distributes 10 million pounds of food throughout the state each year.

"This is certainly a great concern to us that childhood hunger be done away with in the state," he said. "There's no reason it can't be."

Small -- whose organization provides food that feeds 70,000 people a month -- said one of the problems is that not everyone who is eligible for food stamps takes advantage of the program.

Another issue comes in the summer, when children who are used to relying on free or reduced price breakfast and lunch no longer get those meals.

Small said the public is in the habit of donating food around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but there is also a significant need to feed children home from school in the summer.

"It will be interesting to bring to the table all these interests and hear what the governor and his wife have to say," Small said. "I think it's a great opportunity."

Jim Britt, Share Our Strength board president, said the dinner will be a chance to get a "roomful of like-minded people" together to work on a serious issue.

"We can discuss if there is a model other volunteers might pursue and join with the idea of raising those badly needed funds for those organizations on the front line of fighting childhood hunger," he said.

For Rockefeller, the dinner gives her group another way to reach out beyond their annual June event in southern Maine that raises money for established agencies that combat hunger.

"Obviously we're a big state with a lot of need," she said. "What can we do to get different groups talking to each other?"

And for the first lady, a former kindergarten teacher and dietitian, the issue of childhood hunger is one she'd like to help address while she's got the bully pulpit of her office.

"The governor and I certainly care about feeding the hungry," she said. "It's not rocket science. We're just talking about feeding children."

Susan Cover -- 623-1056

scover@centralmaine.com