By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
Food raised at Catholic Charities Farm for ME garden in East Chapman is once again going to Aroostook County food pantries in an effort to continue to “feed The County,” according to Dixie Shaw, home supply and food bank director for Catholic Charities.
Shaw said feeding those less fortunate is an ongoing effort, with money raised at the Threads of Hope thrift stores in Caribou, Presque Isle and Monticello used to buy food, while the garden serves to provide locally-grown produce to area pantries.
“This year’s garden is our second year of growing our own vegetables; we have two separate gardens. One is located in Chapman, on the East Chapman Road, where we have one field with several rows of squash that are thriving, a row of kale that we will soon be harvesting for the third time, some tomatoes that were a challenge, and cabbage, rutabagas, beets and onions. Our Caribou farm, located behind our offices on South Main St., is the blueberry farm. We currently have 20 high bush blueberry plants there, with plans to increase by a minimum of 20 plants each year until the entire nine-acre parcel of land is filled,” said Shaw.
In addition, Shaw said they have 32 bee hives on the Caribou farm that are commercially-owned pollinators and will return to Georgia in the middle of November.
So far Shaw said kale has been harvested in Chapman, onions have been pulled and tomatoes picked.
“We will wait a couple more weeks to start picking squash. We’ll wait until late October to pull our beets and our rutabagas. We can’t harvest any blueberries for at least four years, so the blueberry farm is a long-term project,” she said.
Shaw said additional crops were planted this year in Chapman.
“We added some variety to our Chapman Road venture this year. Last year we planted rutabagas, beets and squash; this year we planted those vegetables but added kale, cabbage, carrots, onions and tomatoes. We also added the bee project and the blueberry farm in Caribou,” said Shaw.
A dry summer proved to be a problem for this year’s crops.
“This year’s fields have struggled. Last year was very, very wet and presented problems; this year was very, very dry and we will not get the yield we had hoped for due to the dry conditions. We found that the kale and cabbage were a challenge since we use organic practices on the Chapman Road farm and initially the bugs had a hey day on those crops,” she said.
Shaw said she and other volunteers “worked past it with the kale, but the cabbage continued to struggle.”
“We don’t plan to grow cabbage again. We also had difficulty with the tomatoes, and we were late getting the onions in, so they didn’t get any size to them. The tomatoes are not easy for us to distribute, based on our schedule of pantries coming. We didn’t have enough plants in to get the numbers we would need for our pantry needs, so we won’t grow tomatoes again either,” said Shaw.
Shaw said next year, if they get tomato plants donated as they did this year, the plan is to give them out to the pantries as plants so people can take them home and grow some of their own food.
“Last year our rutabagas thrived in the moist ground, but this year we have a lot of misses due to lack of rain at planting time, so our expectations for our beets and our rutabagas don’t look as good as last year’s yield. However, we still have some growing weather left, so we are hopeful for some more size in the next few weeks,” she said.
Harvesting has become a team effort, according to Shaw.
“We have been harvesting the smaller crops — tomatoes, onions and kale — ourselves, with a few neighbors coming in to help now and then. When we get ready to harvest the squash and root crops, we will enlist the help of others such as Loring Job Corps students or possibly some students from UMPI or NMCC. Should anyone want to help us out, call 493-8919 and leave contact information for me to reach you or email me at dshaw@ccmaine.org. We would appreciate any and all help, with large group participation encouraged,” Shaw said.
Shaw said produce will be processed and distributed in both fresh and frozen format, as was the case last year.
“Tomatoes, kale, onions and squash have been and will be distributed fresh. The root crops will be processed, sliced and diced — some will be vacuum-packed fresh and some will be frozen. Our goal is to have more produce frozen and processed for later months, like December, January, February and March,” said Shaw.
While numbers aren’t available for this year, Shaw said “people are hurting” and still need help feeding their families.
“Winter was very hard on many of our most vulnerable last year. It takes all summer for many to catch up from that kind of winter and some never do. Here we go again looking at another colder than normal and snow-packed winter, with high heating costs and all the other costs of getting through the winter,” she said.
That’s why food pantries are so important, she said.
“People need our help and people need healthier options. It costs a lot of money to give away free food and it costs even more money to eat healthy foods, so we struggle to meet the ever-increasing needs of our pantries, as people struggle to acquire healthy options,” said Shaw.
Although the garden helps fill part of the food need, Shaw said pantries continue to rely on donated food items.
“We are constantly in need of what we rely on as our basic on perishable food items: pasta, cereal, soup, canned veggies, fruit and tomato products. Those are the basics we strive to have available at all times,” said Shaw, noting, “when individuals and groups do food collections and ask what we need, these are the basics that we always ask for.”
Monetary donations are always welcome.
“Donations of money are always helpful, since we purchase our food through Good Shepherd Food Bank and many of the items we need we can actually purchase at four to eight cents a pound. You can see that our dollars can go far to get the items we need, so we often tell folks you can buy a can of soup for $1.25 or we can buy 31 cans of soup for $1.25, so every dollar raised is a big deal,” said Shaw.
Shaw said Good Shepherd shops in such large quantities and are part of Feeding America, enabling the organization to obtain some great deals on food.
Most of the money needed to run the food banks are derived from sales at their three thrift stores.
“Our stores are non-profits, with 100 percent of our efforts going to feed folks here in The County. We purchase tractor trailer trucks full of food. We spend thousands of dollars on getting food to folks here in The County each month. We appreciate all the shopping folks do at our thrift stores and the donations we receive help us do this work,” said Shaw.
In addition, Shaw said they collect used clothing, which is sold to buyers around the world, with money from that going toward the operation of the food banks.
“We collect used metal — we do anything we can to make this project possible. We write grants to purchase equipment and have been fortunate to receive funding this year to assist us in purchasing a new refrigerated food truck and a pickup for our farming operation,” she said.
Shaw said food drives have been a big help over the years but the loss of one of the most notable — the Teamsters event during the Potato Blossom Festival — hurt this year.
“The Teamsters didn’t help us this year and that hurt — that was big. We did just recently receive a massive food collection from DFAS’s Feds Feeding Families project, with four huge pallets of food,” she said. “TAMC and Cary are teaming up again to work on the Hospitals Against Hunger campaign.”
Now that school is in session, Shaw is hoping more schools will consider food drives as well. She said she also appreciates the efforts of local church and service groups, who help provide holiday baskets and meals for those in need but efforts are ongoing and donations are always welcome.
“People can drop food off at all three of our thrift stores in Caribou, Presque Isle and Monticello. Monetary donations can also be dropped off at all three locations. Checks can be sent to: Catholic Charities Maine, PO Box 748, Caribou, ME 04736 — please note whether the donation is for the food bank of Farm for ME program,” said Shaw.
Shaw said a special sale began this week and continues through the end of the month, in an effort to increase revenue as the agency’s fiscal year comes to a close.
“We are aware of the struggles people are faced with and we are striving to ensure that our stores are an affordable option for all. Our year ended Sept. 30 and we’re in hopes the reduced prices help us meet our yearly sales goals. Sales were lower this year than expected, so now’s the time to get the best deals ever,” said Shaw. “You get a good deal, and someone gets a good meal. That’s our motto and we are doing everything in our power to ensure that folks have enough to eat and as much nutritious food as we can grow or get our hands on.”
Thrift store hours are: Caribou and Presque Isle, open Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with Presque Isle’s store closing Friday nights at 6 p.m. starting Oct. 1; Monticello hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
