HOULTON, Maine — Students from Houlton Middle-High School and East Grand School learned some valuable farming lessons last week, while also helping provide food for the needy.
About 200 Houlton High School students filled three fields Wednesday, Oct. 11, to help Dale Flewelling’s non-profit group Friends of Aroostook harvest vegetables. On Thursday, Oct. 12, students from East Grand came to the fields to assist.
Isaac Vega of Houlton High School harvests corn for the Friends of Aroostook non-profit group on Sept. 30 as part of a community service project. The school, along with students from East Grand, returned to harvest other vegetables Oct. 11. (Joseph Cyr)
For many, it was the first time plucking a vegetable from the earth.
“It is surprising that we live in an agricultural community, and yet so many have never harvested a vegetable before,” said Dee Butler, JMG teacher at Houlton Middle-High School. “A lot of times, kids do not have the family gardens that many of us grew up with. But the kids are excited to be here.”
Addy Michaud, a senior at Houlton High School, was one of many students eager to help.
“We wanted to help out Dale Flewelling and his Friends of Aroostook group,” she said. “I personally enjoy working with plants and I love that we are doing things to support a good cause. We are helping feed people less fortunate.”
Michaud’s group was busy removing tarps from the ground that had been used to insulate tomato plants. Other students were busy picking carrots, squash, beets, and rutabagas.
Houlton High School students Sidney Peabody, left, and Josie Ford yank on a tarp used to insulate tomato plants as part of a community service day for students to help the Friends of Aroostook program.
(Joseph Cyr)
Flewelling, a retired automotive mechanic and business owner, started Friends of Aroostook in 2008 after coming to the realization that there were a lot people with limited incomes who did not have enough healthy food to eat. His program has always been about “not giving a handout, but a hand up.”
His group, which works with both of northern Maine’s Area Agencies on Aging, the Aroostook County Jail, and the Bangor-based Eastern Area Agency on Aging, set a goal of 250,000 pounds of fresh food in 2017.
FOA has grown considerably over the years. For example, in 2008, the group distributed 3,600 ears of corn throughout Aroostook County to various food pantries, and also cut 16 cords of donated wood, which was then given to those in need.
“It certainly is a good thing to get our students out into the field to show them the values of the community we live in,” Houlton High School Principal Marty Bouchard said. “With less and less farms and more automation, the times of working the field and seeing how the food reaches the table are few.”
The school tries to do community service projects each year, but this year’s undertaking was one of the largest it has attempted.
Students from Houlton High School spent the morning of Oct. 11 harvesting vegetables for the Friends of Aroostook program.
(Joseph Cyr)
“It is all about volunteerism and helping the needy,” Bouchard said. “This opportunity presented itself and it was a good way to have the high school come out and help fill a need.”
Butler said she had several students express to her that they had never harvested any type of vegetables, despite living in rural Aroostook County.
On Sept. 30, a smaller group of Houlton students, including those in the National Honor Society and the JMG and Breaking Ground programs, spent the morning harvesting corn with Flewelling.
“Aroostook County is our priority, but we also help Washington County,” Flewelling said. “We have harvested about 24,000 pounds of spaghetti squash, 25,000 pounds of butternut squash, and thousands of pounds of tomatoes and green peppers.”
The group also grew a quarter of an acre of potatoes and half-acres of rutabagas, beets and cabbage, plus winter squash.
“Everything has been later this year by about three weeks,” he said. “Our goal is to make a meaningful donation to both schools with the school leaders deciding how to distribute that money. This is a win-win scenario for everyone.”
Houlton Pioneer photos by Joseph Cyr
