NORWAY — The Western Foothills are known for many things. One thing is local food. Another thing is people who care. So when a pandemic threatened the health, livelihoods and food security of Oxford County residents, it was only a matter of time before community partners stepped in and built a network solution.

“Once the pandemic started we got together to try and figure out what to do,” explained Chris Borden, project director for Foothills Foodworks. “We started weekly meetings to find out what we could do as a food council in the area. There was an increase of people showing up at food pantries. It wasn’t looking good.”

The “we” Chris refers to is Community Food Matters, a group sponsored by the Center for an Ecology-Based Economy in Norway. Since its founding in 2009, CFM has brought Oxford Hills a number of food-based initiatives and celebrations, including the Foothills Food Festival, a Farmer to Chef Collaborative and The Western Foothills Community Food Charter.

When the pandemic closed eateries and small businesses, the domino effect was felt almost overnight. Public-facing workers lost their jobs, local producers lost customers and the community was stunned. In response, CFM members coordinated Foothills Foodworks, a farm to plate project to help solve social interests, local environmental impacts, economic concerns and community nutrition. The first step was to establish network partners – local food pantries.

“I was tasked with reaching out to as many food pantries as I could,” said Borden. “To find out their protocols, their hours, what they needed for supplies. Like hand sanitizer, gloves. That turned into a survey with more specific questions, like how many people were they seeing. If they had an interest in starting gardens.

“One question we asked was about partnering up with the food council to distribute meals. A lot of people weren’t able to get prepared meals through restaurants. Some can’t make meals on their own…whether they can’t cook or they don’t have the means to cook or don’t have the time because of other life pressures.”

A handful of pantries signaled that prepared meals would be most welcome and Foothills Foodworks went to work to help feed the community. Borden said by July they started supplying food pantries in Norway, Oxford, West Paris and Sumner.

Once a month residents could pick up free meals at the Christ Episcopal Church in Norway, The Helping Hands Food Pantry in Oxford, The Agnes Gray Elementary School in West Paris and the Congregational Church of East Sumner during their community’s food distribution day. More recently The Lovell Area Food Pantry operating out of the Lion’s Club in North Lovell has joined the project.

The meals were prepared by local food service workers who lost jobs during the pandemic and the food is supplied by local producers. To provide wages to the cooks and income to the producers, Borden and his colleague at CFM secured a grant through the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation. He found several local business sponsors willing to support the Foothills Foodworks mission and was awarded a second grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

Next was the question about how to make the meals. Brett and Amy Baker, owners of 76 Pleasant Street in Norway offered their kitchen and services to supply the meals distributed by the Episcopal Church. Grange Master Christine Hebert of the Norway Grange #45 opened its kitchen to the program and Foothills Foodworks was able to provide pay a handful of out-of-work food service workers to cook the food there.

“At the Grange there have been a couple of different people helping,” Borden said. But the grants required that only unemployed workers could be hired; since businesses began opening up he has found it hard to bring help in. Borden is now working on additional funding to add culinary training to Foothills Foodworks’ services.

“Currently, it’s been just Jim Dinsmore, one of my coworkers from Café Nomad, and me at the Grange,” he said. “The new grants will allow Foothills Foodworks to have community members who are struggling be trained to learn to work in a kitchen, commercial style, by Jim. It gives them experience, something they can add to a resume or job application for experience.”

Barely a year from its inception and just seven months after its initial launch, Foothills Foodworks is distributing about 600 meals a month through its six food pantry partners.

“We go to each pantry one day a month,” Borden said. “But meals are distributed on those days in Norway as well, where people living in the neighborhood can pick up their meals right at the Grange without having to travel to other towns.”

In Lovell, where the food pantry is very new, the Grange kitchen sends 20 meals. Between 60 and 80 are supplied to Helping Hands in Oxford, 75 – 80 to Agnes Gray and 160 go to Sumner. About 100 are distributed directly from the Grange. The restaurant at 76 Pleasant Street supplies 60 to the Norway Food Pantry; those meals are delivered by Spoke Folks, a bicycle delivery coop also developed under the direction of CEBE.

Distribution days each month are as follows:

First Thursday – Lovell Area Food Pantry
First Friday – Agnes Gray Food Pantry in West Paris
Third Monday – Congregational Church of East Sumner
Third Friday – Christ Episcopal Church of Norway
Fourth Thursday – Helping Hands Food Pantry in Oxford

Be sure to check Foothills Foodworks Facebook page for schedule and location updates: https://www.facebook.com/FoothillsFoodworks/. To help support the Foothills Foodworks mission please email Chris Borden at foothillsfoodworks@gmail.com.

Sponsors of Foothills Foodworks include:

•  WJ Wheeler

•  Dirigo Credit Union

•  Oxford Federal Credit Union

•  Northeast Bank

•  Healthy Oxford Hills

•  New Balance

•  Cafe Nomad

•  Fare Share Co-op

•  Alan Day Community Garden

Foothills Foodworks producers include:

•  Patch Farm

•  Wandering Root Farm

•  Middle Intervale Farm

•  Bumpus Farms

•  Roebuck Angus

•  Stonecipher Farm

•  Beech Hill Farm

•  Smedberg’s

•  Cooper’s

•  Commonwealth Poultry

•  Thunder Hill Farm

•  Saints Hill Farm

•  Alan Day Community Garden

•  Moose Pond Gardens

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