BATH

Local food groups are working together to ensure that everyone in Bath has access to fresh, locally produced food.

Good Food for Bath, a group of organizations working to encourage local food consumption in Bath, is launching the Sharing Table, a weekly opportunity for anyone to take home local produce regardless of income.

Kelly Davis, a coordinator with Merrymeeting Gleaners, said Good Food for Bath was concerned that not everyone who wanted local vegetables was able to get them.

“The feeling we were getting is that there’s still a large population that we’re not able to reach, either because they won’t visit a food pantry for different reasons or because they’re not already tied into one of the organizations we donate to,” said Davis. “We wanted to make it as easy as possible for people in Bath to be able to get fresh, local produce and be able to do it anonymously, if that’s what they wanted.”

The Merrymeeting Gleaners is a three-year-old group of volunteers that collects unharvested or surplus crops from local farmers to distribute to local organizations fighting hunger.

According to a 2017 report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, 16.4 percent of Maine households are food insecure. A total of 165,811 Mainers participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps low-income families purchase nutrition-rich foods. That number is down 7.6 percent from last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service.

Good Food for Bath is a group that was launched in 2016 to tackle food insecurity and encourage collaboration between local food groups to address the Bath area’s needs. Members include the Bath Farmers’ Market, SNAP-Ed, Bath YMCA, Merrymeeting Gleaners, Bath Area Backpack Program, Salvation Army and Kennebec Estuary Land Trust.

“Good Food for Bath has been a kind of local coalition — a group of advocates around Bath working on hunger fighting initiatives in the area,” Kelsey Keller of the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust told The Times Record previously. “It’s everyone in the Bath area that has a hand in getting more good food to more people.”

“We get together periodically just to discuss what’s going on in our organizations and see if we can collaborate on any issues,” said Davis.

Last month the group launched Good Food Week in Bath, several days of events emphasizing local food production in the area.

The Sharing Table will take place every Wednesday from 3-6 p.m. starting Aug. 22. Every Wednesday, volunteers will set up an unmanned table at Library Park with fresh produce gleaned from local farms like Six River Farm in Bowdoinham or Goranson Farm in Dresden, as well as food grown at KELT’s LOCAL Garden. Anyone can come by the park in that threehour block to pick up as much food as they need. There will be no income criteria or questions asked.

“It’ll be fresh, local food just harvested that morning. We’ll put it out on the table for anyone to take, no questions asked,” said Davis. “If somebody needs something, they can just take it.”

Davis added that the Sharing Table would make it easy for many families to introduce vegetables into their diet.

Individuals are asked to take whatever they need and pay for whatever they can. Donations will support the work being done at the LOCAL Garden and by Merrymeeting Gleaners.

It’s all about “trying to increase access to fresh and local produce for more people in the Bath area,” said Davis.

nstrout@timesrecord.com

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