FARMINGTON — If everything goes according to plan, volunteers will harvest more than 500 pounds of buttercup squash this summer from the former Franklin County Detention Center garden. The produce will be donated to area food pantries.

The effort is part of the Maine Harvest for Hunger project and is being led locally by a group of master gardeners trained through the University of Maine’s Cooperative Extension program.

Each year, Maine gardeners, farmers, schools and civic groups grow, glean or donate fresh fruit and vegetables to the Harvest for Hunger project. In 2010, 200,006 pounds of produce, including nine tons of potatoes, was distributed to food pantries, shelters and charitable organizations in Maine, according to the project’s website.

This year the goal is 250,000 pounds.

The jailhouse garden in Farmington was started about six years ago under the direction of Sheriff Dennis Pike. It was planted and maintained by a steady flow of inmates. The tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and squash that once filled the rows were harvested and used by the kitchen staff to augment the prisoners’ diet, with the excess donated to food banks, Pike said Tuesday.

In 2009, the state changed the full-service jail to a 72-hour holding facility. There was no longer any need for a kitchen since inmates were transported to the Somerset County Jail in Madison.

Last month, Dave Fuller from the Franklin County Extension Service asked Pike about using the plot for a Harvest for Hunger garden. Pike said he was on board and even had custodian Aaron Marden rototill the 50- by 50-foot plot.

“And we now have an arrangement with Somerset County to bring inmates back here to do community work for 72-hour stretches, and they will be able to work in the garden,” he said.

On Tuesday, master gardeners Lauren St. Germain from the Cooperative Extension and Bonnie Clark, who owns a small farm, spent the morning hoeing and planting seeds.

“We plan to have 50 plants per row and hope to harvest more than 500 pounds,” St. Germain said.

“Buttercup is a good variety because it is easy to grow, stores really well and the food pantries will be able to handle them,” she said.

Donations from Farmington Farmer’s Union, Aubuchon Hardware and Robin’s Flower Pot, both in Farmington, have provided organic fertilizers and seeds, she said. She is also hoping to get more volunteers involved. Anyone interested can call the Extension at 778-4650.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 10 percent of Maine households, representing 141,000 people, are “food insecure,” defined as having limited availability of nutritional foods or limited ability to acquire foods in socially acceptable ways. Maine ranks 5th in the nation in prevalence of food insecurity.

Those statistics resonate with Carolyn McLaughlin of the Care & Share Food Pantry, which is down the road from the jail at the Fairbanks Meeting House on Fairbanks Road.

She said demand for food at that food bank is alarmingly up.

“We are seeing record numbers of clients. We’ve never been this busy and we keep seeing new people come in,” she said.

The pantry now serves between 275 to 300 families a month, which equates to about 600 people.

A year and a half ago, they served about 400 people a month.

The pantry is open Monday through Friday from noon to 2 p.m. With the increase in clients, more volunteers are needed, McLaughlin said. To help out, call 645-2312.

The Maine Harvest for Hunger program is open to all interested gardeners and is coordinated through University of Maine Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Volunteer program. To enroll or learn more about the program, visit Maine Harvest for Hunger on Facebook, or go to http://extension.umaine.edu/county-offices, or call 1-800-287-0274.