Our Mission

   We Support Maine Farmers By Feeding Maine People.

We envision all Maine residents to be able to access and choose nutritious, desirable, safe food, especially farm-fresh fruits, vegetables, and proteins while creating greater profitability and stability for Maine farms.

Improving Farm Viability

To our farm partners, Farms for Food Equity seeks to be a reliable customer that alleviates uncertainty. In buying more produce regularly, FFE hopes to encourage farm viability: larger harvests, increased revenue, higher employment capacity, and more opportunity for value-added processing.

Three people harvesting vegetables, possibly cabbage, in an outdoor farm setting with a clear blue sky and trees in the background.

Helping to End Hunger

With food purchased from farm partners, FFE and our partners distribute to food panties and other food sites so that people can access and choose nutritious, desirable, safe, food, especially farm-fresh local fruits, vegetables, and proteins.

A person operating a yellow front loader forklift loading food supplies into a white truck with 'Wayside Food Programs' and 'food rescue' written on the side. The scene is outdoors with green trees in the background during daylight.

Reducing Food Loss

Food loss (aka food waste) is experienced by most farms. It is estimated that over 30% is left in the field. This occurs for many reasons: no market, labor, excess or need to move to the next planting. Farms for Food Equity will work with farms to harvest these products.

Rows of green and purple lettuce growing in a farm field with trees and blue sky in the background.

Identifying Future Market Options

Farms for Food Equity will seek to identify and implement new market opportunities for their partner farms (and other Maine Farms); by seeking markets outside of the charitable food system for surplus and imperfect products.

Boxes of farm-fresh vegetables, featuring green peppers, on a wooden pallet with plastic bags of produce on top, inside a rustic store or barn.

Using the Not-So-Perfect
or Well-Known

Maine farms grow an array and abundance of food during the growing season; some might be considered off-grade (meaning not retail quality) yet it is perfect for use by anybody - just not the eye-appealing product many consumers are looking for, a crooked carrot, a cucumber that is a little pudgy or green beans that aren’t perfectly straight, but they taste good and are nutritious. FFE purchases these and transports to food pantries or processes for distribution at later date.

Assorted tomatoes including green striped, yellow, and red varieties on a black surface.

Maximizing Potential for Excess Products

There are times during the season when there is an abundance of products, such as zucchini, corn, strawberries, or other products. Many times these might be left behind in the field. Farms For Food Equity works with partners who provide light processing to make products available to food pantries and soup kitchens during the off-season - through a partnership with Wayside Food Programs and Rosemont Market’s warehouse this will be possible.

A woman in a light gray shirt loading bags of groceries into a black crate in the trunk of a vehicle.

Help Support Maine Farmers By Feeding Maine People