FARMINGTON — A food preservation project started by Arleen Masselli, owner of Knowlton Corner Farm, earlier this year has reached the point where every Thursday will be devoted to the project.

Initally Masselli had proposed a community garden project and invited interested individuals to attend a meeting at the farm. That group decided to prioritize ideas with the first being working to preserve produce and other food items for future use by food pantry recipients.

Masselli recently said the food waste project has taken off.

“There’s so much to process I can’t get enough help. It could become a full time job, that’s how much there is,” she said.

According to the farm’s Facebook page, “Since the onset of Covid19, we have been working behind the scenes on the food waste project. In partnership with the Care and Share Food Pantry, we have repurposed breads into stuffing mix, Italian flavored bread crumbs, croutons as well as garlic flavored pita chips. Browned bananas have been made into banana breads, banana muffins, and banana oatmeal cookies, to name a few.

“Given the situation with the pandemic, now, more than ever, we are needed to step up to the plate to help those in need. We are seeking volunteers who would be interested in helping us to make and bake as well as can foods to be repurposed. In accordance with the Governor’s re-opening plan, our bakery is large enough to accommodate the 6 foot distancing protocols and we continue to follow the Covid-19 prevention checklist requirements.”

Every Thursday, in the Knowlton Corner Farm kitchen from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., produce or food items will be repurposed into new products suitable for human consumption.

“People can pop in for an hour or two, whatever time they can to get that moving forward” Masselli said.

The community garden piece of the project is on hold for now. Everybody who had expressed interest is no longer involved, Masselli said.

Green beans and 30 tomato plants were planted at Knowlton Corner Farm with the harvest either donated to food pantries or processed first, she said.

Fewer people are coming to food pantries, perhaps because of the extra $600 in benefits they are getting, Masselli said.

“People still are not comfortable coming out. Only two of four people who said they would help showed up recently. Their help was wonderful,” she said.

Farmington Care and Share Food Closet Executive Director Leiza Hiltz Scerbo said the closet is faced with the difficulty of getting extra food, some of which is very perishable. Bananas are a good example, she said.

“People aren’t baking. They’re worried about their jobs, are teaching their kids so they’re not taking ingredients,” she said.

While some foods have been shared with other food pantries, some pantries haven’t been open. Another issue is ending up with too much of some items in one delivery and not enough in others.

The Care and Share Food Closet is open 12 to 2 p.m. weekdays. It also distributes baked goods and perishables every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 11 a.m.

“Hannafords, Walmart and Sam’s Club donate to us. People are really acceptable to the pastries but may not know of the Thursday pickup date,” Scerbo said. “We had 50 people last Tuesday.

“Anyone, client or not or from out of the area, can come once a week. They don’t have to wait for their monthly pickup. Perishable vegetables, fruits, baked goods, milk and other dairy products, anything with a short shelf life is available Tuesday and Thursday mornings so it gets to people.

“Leftovers are sent to farms to compost. We would rather those foods get to people.

The food closet’s cold room died recently so for a week there was a rush of ‘now what do we do?’, Scerbo said.

The food closet served people from 27 towns last month. Some have no car of their own and have counselors bring them, for others their ride was only going to Farmington or local food pantries weren’t open, she said.

“There’s been a huge increase in people from other areas, people we’ve never seen before,” Scerbo said.

Information found on Farmington Care and Share Food Closet’s website, https://www.careandsharefoodcloset.org/, shows 8,587 families or individuals from 30 Maine towns in five counties were helped in 2019. Farmington had 4,890, 31 were from North New Portland, two from Augusta, one from Livermore Falls and 26 from Rumford.

For more information on the Care and Share Food Closet email careandsharefoodcloset@gmail.com, visit the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/CareAndShareFoodCloset/ or call 207-778-0508.

Wilton Food Pantry Treasurer Lory Zamboni said that pantry is seeing fewer numbers.

“The fear factor of not going anywhere is part of it. Schools have been feeding kids,” she said.

When foods are no longer being given out and in September when things hopefully get back to normal, she expects the pantry will be inundated.

Nye Mosher, who spends a lot of time at the food pantry, said most of the time all food that comes in is distributed.

“Problems come, we need to be careful, when people donate food,” he said. “Some of that is outdated and can’t be used.

Donations from the Jay Hannaford store are picked up on Wednesday and Thursday, Mosher said.

“On Thursday, 20 sets are packaged and given away. There’s a line of people waiting,” he said. “What isn’t given out is put in the freezer. Sometimes the Hannaford produce is beyond use by the time we get it.”

Numbers were down at the Wilton Food Pantry last month. Mosher expects them to hold fairly consistent going forward.

“We have plenty of food. No one has to be bashful, afraid of taking it from anyone else,” Mosher said. “We just got in the best United States Department of Agriculture delivery we’e gotten in a long time.

“We’re serving people outside, welcoming people from Wilton, Weld, the plantations, North Jay, East Dixfield, Dryden and East Wilton. People are greeted with a smile behind the mask.

The Wilton Food Pantry is open 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. For more information call 207-645-3840 and leave a message. Messages are checked at least once daily, Mosher said.

In addition to the banana chips, croutons and baked goods Masselli and volunteers have made so far, plans are in the works to can extra garden produce for food pantries as it becomes available.

Those with canning experience are being sought to help on Thursdays at Knowlton Corner Farm. Canning jars in a variety of sizes are also needed. Used ones are okay so long as they don’t have nicks or cracks.

For more information on the food waste project, email bobg@beeline-online.net, visit the Knowlton Corner Farm Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KnowltonCornerFarmFarmingtonMaine/, or call Masselli at 207-778-6520.

“Sometimes God sends us down different paths. I think this is one of them,” Masselli said.

 

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