Program that pays farmers to provide food for hungry Mainers threatened

AUBURN — To preserve a hunger relief program that buys more than $1 million worth of fresh produce from Maine farms each year, state lawmakers are weighing whether to include funding for it for another two years.

Without the allocation, Good Shepherd Food Bank’s program would have to be reduced drastically, Kristen Miale, the charity’s president, told legislators recently.

Miale said Tuesday at the charity’s Auburn warehouse the Mainers Feeding Mainers program is nearly “a perfect project” because it uses state cash to provide food to hungry residents, while bolstering 75 family farms throughout the state.

One of the participating farmers, Eugene Ripley of Ripley Farm in Dover-Foxcroft, called the program “one of the brightest spots in the local agricultural economy” and pleaded for its survival.

Read more: https://www.sunjournal.com/2019/05/28/program-that-pays-farmers-to-provide-food-for-hungry-mainers-threatened/
(Lewiston Sun Journal)