By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

Although it may not feel like spring outside, many seniors are already buying fresh, organic fruits and vegetables from farms throughout Maine even though it may be a few months before they can enjoy them. Since 2000, the Senior Farm Share program has allowed certain low-income seniors to pre-purchase fresh produce from a Maine farm of their choice, and this year is playing a key role for 151 Maine farmers who have had a tough winter. 

“A lot of farmers have become really attached to the program, as it gives them the money to buy seed,” said Deb Everett, the Senior Farm Share program manager at the Maine Department of Agriculture. 

Ramona Snell of the Snell Family Farm in Buxton said they are already working on this year’s crop by germinating tomato plants and “basically everything else you can grow in Maine.”

“Right now [the plants are] so tiny it’s hard to believe they’re going to become giants,” she said. 

Farmers across the state have been registering for the program since January by submitting an application to the Maine Department of Agriculture, which must determine the farm provides purely organic produce as well as calculating how many shares the farm is eligible to offer.

“The smallest farm has four shares and we have others at 500,” Everett said. 

The Senior Farm Share program has become so popular there are not enough shares to satisfy all of the seniors who apply, Everett said. Demand for shares raised significantly after the U.S. Department of Agriculture limited the cost of the Senior Farm Share portions to $50 worth of produce in 2005, rather than the original $100.

Several farmers are critical of the change, including Penny Jordan of the William H. Jordan Farm in Cape Elizabeth, which was awarded 300 shares this year. Penny Jordan, who had been involving the farm in the program for the past five years, said $50 shares “are not a good thing” as they restrict the amount of produce seniors receive through the program.

“The $100 shares were way more meaningful in terms of nutrition,” Snell said.

Pat Jordan of the Alewive’s Brook Farm in Cape Elizabeth, which was awarded 300 shares this year, said the $50 cap not only decreased the amount of food for seniors but increased the workload for farmers as well.

“It is a lot of paperwork,” she said. 

Everett said the $50 cap was implemented to prevent the Maine Department of Agriculture from having to verify income levels for the 16,000 seniors who enroll in the program each year.

“If the shares were $51 we’d have to check out every applicant,” she said.

Penny Jordan said she believe farmers would gladly verify the income of the seniors involved in the program if it meant they could receive more produce.

“I don’t think it would be that hard to do,” she said.

The Snell Family Farm, which has participated in the program since its inception in 2000, was awarded 360 shares and also participates in an “Adopt-A-Senior” program which enables groups or individuals to purchase shares for a senior who would not otherwise be involved with the program.

“[The ‘Adopt-A-Senior’ program] allows the farms to take on more people when they don’t have enough shares to go around,” Everett said.

Penny Jordan said the William H. Jordan Farm uses the “Adopt-A-Senior” program in conjunction with the Senior Farm Share to allow seniors to receive more produce.

“They can get $50 from Farm Share, and more from ‘Adopt-A-Senior,’” she said.

Snell said the Adopt-A-Senior program originated at the Stutzman Farm in Sangerville. Farms participating in the “Adopt-A-Senior” program can contribute $5 to each share, lowering the cost for seniors to $45, Snell said.

“We encouraged [the ‘Adopt-A-Senior’ program] but don’t oversee it,” Maine Department of Agriculture Market Development marketing manager Deanne Hermann said. “It was a result of local initiatives.”

The Senior Farm Share program does not specify how farmers distribute their shares to seniors, and Everett said there are a variety of different ways for seniors to receive their produce. 

The Snell Family Farm and the William H. Jordan Farm both let seniors pick up the produce at their farm stands.

“We figure people have specific likes and dislikes and we can let them pick our their own,” Snell said.

Everett said many farmers such as the Alewive’s Brook Farm schedule deliveries to senior housing facilities where the produce can be distributed to many seniors at once.

Everett said farmers can also pre-package shares before sending them to seniors, or even invite seniors into the fields to pick their own produce.

Hermann, who has helped foster Senior Farm Share since 2000, said the program began in response to a $15 million incentive from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for states to provide vegetables to low-income seniors.

Hermann said she believed Maine’s Senior Farm Share program to be ranked highest in the nation in 2001 and was implemented as an official Department of Agriculture program just last year.

For more information call the Department of Agriculture at 287-7526.