PRESS RELEASE

7/16/2020

The midcoast Maine region is home to a particularly high density of farms and organizations
committed to promoting food access. Over the past months, a number of local farms, along with
the Merrymeeting Gleaners and the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust (BTLT), have been working
together on an ambitious project to collect and distribute hundreds of seedlings to dozens of food
access programs across the southern midcoast region. The project is already proving hugely
successful, with thousands of plants having been distributed. In time, these seedlings will mature
in various gardens around the region and yield significantly more food per unit than
redistributing already grown vegetables.

“We hadn’t done much seedling donation before this year,” said Ben Whatley, co-owner of
Whatley Farm, one of the farms who has taken the lead in donating seedlings. “It was always just
excess produce going through... when we’ve had the gleaners out to glean the crops on the
fields. [Gleaning seedlings] was a new idea [for us].”

A few months ago, Whatley reached out to Kelly Davis (Gleaning Coordinator for the
Merrymeeting Gleaners) and Jamie Pacheco (Program Manager at BTLT) offering to donate a
variety of excess vegetable seedlings. Pacheco and Davis contacted a network of partner
organizations in the area to gauge interest, with the Merrymeeting Gleaners managing the
logistics and distribution. The response was rapid and enthusiastic.

“Seedlings aren’t really something we’ve gleaned before, but [Whatley] reached out to us asking
if we could use the seedlings and I was like ‘OK, let’s try it,”’ said Davis. “I put an email out to
all our partners and I got an overwhelming response—within half an hour, I had to stop taking
requests!”

Read the full press release…