FarmShare in Maine

Taken on their own, the twin problems of struggling small farmers and seniors lacking in good nutrition point to an obvious solution. But in the whirl of Washington problems and studies showing all kinds of things, to match these two and simultaneously create a solution that works for both showed a lot of ingenuity. The Seniors FarmShare pilot program, in which Maine will play a leading role, could be a real benefit to everyone involved.

Working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rep. John Baldacci, on the House Agriculture Committee, took the idea of offering seniors coupons to purchase fresh food at farmers markets and helped form it into a program that is substantial enough to work, boosting the funding and expanding the scope to include farm stands and community supported agriculture programs. The Maine departments of Agriculture and Human Services worked together to make the program easy to use, particularly for seniors without transportation. Congregate meal sites for seniors are to act as go-betweens to match seniors and farmers. The result of all this cooperation is better meals for thousands of Maine seniors and better futures for Maine farms.

Seniors FarmShare is based on the notion of community-supported agriculture, in which community members provide funding to a farmer at the beginning of the year in exchange for fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season. The farmers get enough capital to do their work and have some assurance of what they will earn; the buyers get fresh food in the quantities they desire. Locally the University of Maine Extension has reported that Maine’s elderly population does not eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, a conclusion echoed on the national level by the General Accounting Office.

The USDA pilot program is taking place this year in more than 30 states. Maine’s program is among the largest, with $769,500 in funding. Generally, seniors with incomes below 18 5 percent of poverty are eligible. The process of qualifying farmers to sell their produce in the program is not yet complete, but the farms will need to be able to offer a broad range of fruits and vegetables and show some evidence that they can deliver what they say they will. Because the administrative budget for the program is zero, state officials have been creative in making it easy to use and simple to oversee.

An unusual feature of the Maine program, however, is the commitment to deliver the food to seniors who cannot get to a market or farm stand. The details of this system, too, are still being worked out, but deliveries to local food pantries and congregate meal sites should boost the number of people participating in the program.

FarmShare is scheduled to begin in the spring, with the first produce coming not long after. This seemingly simple idea of delivering good food to people who need it -thereby helping both the giver and the receiver – has required plenty of work, but should be if real benefit to Maine.