SANGERVILLE – When Congress returns to session later this month, Maine’s senior citizens can be assured that Gus Schumacher, former undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Rep. John Baldacci, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee, will be lobbying heavily on their behalf for a special senior nutrition program.

On Friday, Schumacher and Baldacci were spending the last of three days set aside to visit farm stands, farmers markets and food pantries that participate in the highly successful Farm Share program, a program that Schumacher created, Baldacci fought for, and which provides free shares of produce to Maine’s seniors.

Each share is worth $100, and seniors can redeem their shares throughout the year, as each fruit or vegetable is ready for harvest.

Maine’s program is unique, said Schumacher, in that it allows each farm to tailor the program to suit its needs. Maine is also the only state that provides $100 per person. “Most other states are giving only $20 or $30,” he said. “Other states are looking closely to see what drives Maine’s program and why it is so successful.”

Schumacher is no stranger to observing the success of unique, innovative programs under his guidance. In the 1980s, while agriculture commissioner for Massachusetts, Schumacher began a small coupon program, WIC, or Women’s, Infants and Children, which is now one of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most successful nutritional programs.

In his role as a private citizen, Schumacher has pledged to continue to expand and fund the Farm Share program, mostly through private funding sources.

As Schumacher stood outside the farm stand at the Stutzman Farm in Sangerville Friday morning, watching area senior citizens select from a wide range of fresh produce, he said he was astounded. “Look at this,” he said. “This is unbelievable.” Before him were at least three dozen senior citizens, filling their baskets and swapping recipes, carefully weighing tomatoes still warm from the field and choosing which greens they would have for dinner.

Although he has visited Farm Share sites in Iowa, Michigan and California, among other states, Schumacher said he was extremely impressed by the quality and variety of Maine produce being offered to the seniors.

Every day since May, between 30 and 40 senior citizens come to the Stutzman farm stand for fresh produce. More than 200 Piscataquis County residents are served at the single farm stand. Seventy of those consumers come from the Thayer Parkway senior complex in Dover-Foxcroft.

Thayer Parkway Property Manager Suzanne Raymond said that 85 percent of the complex’s seniors participate in the program. The remaining 15 percent have sons or daughters with gardens that provide them with fresh vegetables. “Some couples, entitled to two $100 shares, only took one so that someone else could sign up,” said Raymond. “Some in the program share their vegetables with those who didn’t get a chance to participate.”

It is the program’s flexibility that is being credited with its success.

Farm stand owner Rainey Stutzman told Schumacher, who was visiting the Farm Share sites in his effort to find private funding for the program, that at least 200 additional seniors in the area could be served by the program.

“We need to sign up more farms,” she said. Stutzman’s farm is the only one in Piscataquis County participating in Farm Share.

She told Schumacher that the Farm Share program couldn’t have come at a better time for both seniors and farmers. “Winter lasted from October to May,” she said, putting the pinch on seniors’ budgets and farm income. By participating in the program, the Stutzman Farm received their payment check upfront, early in the season. This enabled them to literally plow it right back into the farm.

With no administrative costs built into the program, 100 percent of the money goes to the farmer and 100 percent of that value is returned to the seniors.

Elvie Sargent of Dover-Foxcroft said she has been able to get produce that she would not have been able to afford without the program. “Especially fresh peas and strawberries,” she said. “It has been such a big help. It will help in the winter, too,” she added, since Sargent preserves and freezes the summer bounty.

Glennis Sampson of Sebec said that the freshness of the produce is the most important thing. “At the grocery store, you are buying old fresh produce. It has been trucked in from all over the country. All your nutrition is gone.”

It is also apparent that greeting old friends has become as important as selecting squash. Sampson said the daily trip to the farm stand has become the only social outlet for many of the area seniors. Some come for a single cucumber for their dinner, she said, simply to be able to gather and talk with others.

“It is a great program,” she said.

While Schumacher and Baldacci visited at the farm stand, the most frequently asked question was “Will this program be available next year?”

Baldacci explained that there is a 10-year guarantee of funding built into the House of Representatives Farm Bill but that does not kick in until 2003. “We need to find secure funding for 2002. We came up with a block grant and some other resources from other channels,” said Baldacci.

Baldacci said he is optimistic that the Senate will fund the program next year. While the Senate Agricultural Appropriations bill doesn’t include specific funding, it does recommend that both the Farm Share and the WIC programs, dropped by the current administration, be funded at higher levels.