This state’s best program to boost local agriculture while helping solve hunger is about to run out of funding. Through Mainers Feeding Mainers, Good Shepherd Food Bank buys local food from Maine farms for hunger-relief organizations. Without the passage of LD 786, the funding will run out in June.

My wife and I started a fruit farm in 2010 that has been in our family for 100 years, but laid dormant for three decades. People looked at our vision as impossible, but our entrepreneurial spirit rose to the occasion, and after extensive efforts, we found Good Shepherd Food Bank and Mainers Feeding Mainers, among other buyers.

It is in large part because of Mainers Feeding Mainers that we are celebrating our 10th season. We went from owners of an abandoned orchard to owners of a thriving agricultural enterprise employing 10 year-round and 25 seasonal employees.

It was my dream to be able to give my family a comfortable home. When we started the farm, we were living in a small mobile home. Then our family started to grow, and we needed more space. If it were not for Mainers Feeding Mainers, we would have been forced to look for off-farm work to afford a home. At that point the farm would have been abandoned.

I am happy to say we are now enjoying our fourth year in our home as full-time farmers, thanks to our Lord Jesus, family and Mainers Feeding Mainers.

We support LD 786 for the future of farming families in Maine.

Joel Gilbert, Livermore