By Kathleen McLaughlin
When a group of concerned citizens got together in Waldo County back in March 2020, they never thought they’d be starting a permanent channel for their neighbors in need to access free and fresh local produce. The first “Give and Take” sharing tables went in that year. Four years later, there are 22 tables — and counting.
Representatives of Waldo County’s food system mobilized quickly in a grassroots effort at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Viña Lindley, food systems professional with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, who was part of the original team that eventually formed Waldo County Bounty, a nonprofit food organization with gleaning, farm-to-pantry, and sharing table programs.
The initial goal of the Give & Take initiative, says Lindley, was to address food insecurity and any pandemic-related food shortages that could come up. Lindley says organizers also saw an important resource that had gone untapped for years. “There’s a huge culture of backyard gardening here in Waldo County that is an asset that we wanted to tap into,” she adds. While Waldo County Bounty does not keep official tallies — just homey notebooks with scribbled messages from who stopped by and what they dropped off — it does appear that home gardeners have been the main contributors to the tables.
With its expansive network of sharing tables from Belfast on the coast to Unity inland, Waldo County may have the largest sharing table program in the state, but it is by no means the only one. In the last several years, such programs have sprung up in virtually all of Maine’s 16 counties, from York to Aroostook, in church halls, post offices, public parks, and libraries.
How sharing tables work seems a throwback to simpler times, or maybe to the days of the victory gardens of WWII when gardeners were called upon to grow food for self-reliance. The tables are usually located in a public place that is readily accessible. Anyone can donate, and anyone in need can help themselves to fresh produce. No income questions are asked; no money is exchanged. The tables are open 24/7, and they are usually unattended. In Waldo County, each of the sharing sites has a cooler and there is a site coordinator who makes sure everything is kept clean and neat, and any produce past its prime is removed.
As in other communities across the state, organizers in Waldo County had no problems finding volunteers or donations. “We found that people just really wanted to help their neighbors and keep it very local,” says Lindley. One of those people who stepped up was acclaimed restaurateur Erin French of The Lost Kitchen in Freedom, who raised and donated nearly $350,000 to Waldo County Bounty. Also, the Maine State Prison contributed wooden signs from its industrial arts program. And local businesses and local builders have lent wood and labor towards building permanent structures at the sharing table sites.
Lindley envisions the so-called “share sheds” becoming as ubiquitous as the Little Free Library booths you see around Maine and elsewhere. The reason why the sharing tables have remained popular in Waldo County even years after the start of the pandemic, Lindley says, is that they provide 24-hour convenience compared to food banks and pantries, which are limited to certain hours and days of the week. By strategically placing the booths in public places or along major roads, organizers are improving access for people who might be working, for example, yet still need help with food access, or for people who don’t drive or lack transportation. “There can be great, wonderful food, but if it’s five miles down the road, it really doesn’t do you any good if you don’t have reliable transportation,” says Lindley.
Good Shepherd Food Bank confirms sharing tables are on the rise across Maine, as are so-called community refrigerators, according to Dawn DiFiore, director of community partnerships for Good Shepherd. Community refrigerators work the same way as sharing tables in that they are free and open to the public around-the-clock, yet they provide better cold storage for keeping food fresh. One example, the Seacoast Fridge, opened in Kittery in 2021 with the motto, “Take what you need, leave what you can.”
Driving share table and community refrigerator programs in Maine is widespread food insecurity, says DiFiore. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Maine’s food insecurity rate as of 2022 is 9.5%, which means roughly one in eight or nine Mainers goes without consistent access to fresh, quality food. This is the highest rate in New England and 35th in the nation. “I try to put a face to that one. Is it my neighbor right next door? Is it the person at the local library? Is it the gas station attendant where I stop to get gas? For me, that really moves it from a statistic to a story,” says DiFiore.
Like other states, prices have gone up on everything. Maine saw inflation spike by 8% in 2022 following the pandemic. Since then, prices have continued to increase but not quite at that pace. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), the most widely used indicator of inflation, has been running at between 3 and 4% this year in New England, which is still considered high. The CPI reflects inflation on all prices, not just food.
Adding to Maine’s plight are its traditionally high food prices, due in part to the state’s northernmost location. In 2022, the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, listed Maine as having the third highest food prices of any state in the country, below Hawaii and Massachusetts. The EPI says the average family of four in Maine spends $11,480 annually on food.
Good Shepherd’s DiFiore says the food bank is predicting more and more need for charitable food access across Maine in the coming year, especially in rural areas. She advocates the federal government needs to step up, too, because hunger has no borders. “Maine is seeing hunger rise, and so are neighboring states as well,” she says.
DiFiore says all eyes are on the Farm Bill now making its way through the U.S. Congress, which provides money for agriculture but also food programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Renewed every five years, the Farm Bill expired in September 2023, but lawmakers approved an extension which, as of this writing, is due to expire at the end of September 2024.
Meanwhile, those who work in Maine’s grassroots food aid system continue to battle hunger and food insecurity on every front. In Waldo County, even more Give and Take share sheds are going in during the 2024 harvest season, and more signs are on order from the Maine State Prison.
“We need to have a table in each town. That is the ultimate goal we’re looking at here,” says Lindley.
Kathleen McLaughlin is a freelance writer and Maine Master Gardener Volunteer based in Bath.
This article was originally published in the fall 2024 issue of The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener. Browse the archives for free content on organic agriculture and sustainable living practices. Subscribe to the publication by becoming a member!
