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| Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson Volunteers with the Loring Job Corps Center and the Maine Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster helped glean broccoli last Wednesday from one of the Smith’s Farm fields in Presque Isle. The broccoli has since been delivered to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, which provides for those at risk of hunger by soliciting and distributing surplus food to more than 600 partner agencies. |
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — As of last Wednesday, Andrew Knight can cross “visit a Maine farm” off his to-do list.
For the last several years, Smith’s Farm in Presque Isle has allowed the Maine Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) to glean broccoli from one of their fields. About 45 volunteers, including Knight, met Sept. 25 in Presque Isle to pick the crop which has since been delivered to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, the largest hunger relief organization in Maine.
“I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to visit any of the farms here in Maine, so when I heard about this, I jumped straight at it,” said Knight. “I was born in Jamaica and have lived in New York the last 13 years, so this was something I’ve always wanted to do.
“I really do love nature. Compared to New York, the air here is more cleansing and fresh. I’ve always been attracted to farming, but I’ve never had the chance to experience any part of it — either the planting or the harvesting, so I wanted to experience it for myself to see what it was like,” he said. “I love it. It is wonderful. It’s exercise for both the muscles and the brain because it’s very clearing for me.”
Knight estimated that he — with help from some of his fellow Job Corps students — had picked about 20 boxes by lunchtime.
“When it comes to education, if you’re doing something practical, you get to learn more. Now, the fact that you’re doing something for the community, it makes you understand just how important your work is,” said Knight. “Knowing that you’re doing something good for at least one other person is meaningful.”
While there have been no recent disasters in the state, Robert Van Deventer, VOAD food pantries projects coordinator, said feeding in Maine is a critical issue.
“When there’s not a disaster, we try to keep the volunteers active doing other things … one of which is helping out food pantries,” he said. “We’ve been up here a number of years now doing the gleaning. We feel that, even though it’s not a natural disaster, feeding in the state of Maine is very important. We are very grateful to Smith’s Farm for participating in this project.
“The need for food in Maine is tremendous, and all of our staples are becoming very difficult to get,” Van Deventer said. “Nowadays with stores using computers, they can tell you exactly how many peas they sold yesterday, so there’s not a lot of surplus of the basic food items. More and more food pantries are forced to purchase those staples, which gets expensive. This broccoli is gold for us. Instead of giving out another can of peas or corn, we can save that until the colder months and give out broccoli. It saves the pantries money, and every penny counts.”
This year, the Good Shepherd Food Bank will distribute more than 13 million pounds of food and grocery products to more than 600 agencies that serve all 16 counties in Maine. The USDA estimates that 14.7 percent of Maine households, or approximately 200,000 individuals, are food insecure, or lacking access to enough food to ensure adequate nutrition.
“This broccoli will probably get all the way down to York County,” said Van Deventer. “We couldn’t have done this without all the volunteers from the Loring Job Corps Center. It’s nice to see the students out in the community because they get to see first-hand what’s going on outside of their school and classrooms.”
Van Deventer, who estimated that about 575 boxes of broccoli would be harvested during the one-day project, also had high praise for Smith’s Farm.
