WINTHROP (AP) — A Winthrop food pantry that serves 100 area families is closing down after 22 years because the Maine-based supermarket that provided most of its food is changing the way it makes donations.

Samuel Richards, pastor of East Winthrop Baptist Church, said a new policy by Hannaford Supermarkets to limit donations to food pantries affiliated with Good Shepherd Food Bank means the church’s food ministry will lose its source of food and will have to close.

He said the ministry’s only hope of continuing service, an application to become a Good Shepherd affiliated food pantry, was rejected this week.

Hannaford spokesman Eric Blom told the Kennebec Journal (http://bit.ly/1ghJjdB ) that the Scarborough-based supermarket chain made the decision in an effort to reduce the amount of meat and produce going to waste.