Veggies to Table, a local non-profit vegetable and flower farm in Newcastle, was prominently profiled in the most recent issue of Decor Maine. The long feature article focused on many facets of this community-minded enterprise, including how it came to be, the critical problem of food insecurity in Maine, the farmers and volunteers who keep everything running smoothly, and its success as a hub of community connection with a ripple effect far beyond the farm’s fields.

Over the past four years, the article noted, Veggies to Table has donated 44,500 pounds of organic produce (equal to 37,000+ meals) to help the roughly 15% of Maine families that are food-insecure (that figure is 20% for children and 16% for seniors). And it’s all grown on Erica Berman and husband Alain Ollier’s small-but-mighty farm, which started life as a mostly wooded plot with a single, unplanted field when they bought it in 2012 after 20 years spent living and working in France.

Since then, they have transformed the land, along with indispensable help from dedicated staff farmers and a wide range of about 150 annual volunteers, who plant, arrange flowers, write grants, weed, harvest and more. Some of these volunteers are local and some come from farther afield through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), an organization that facilitate stays on organic farms, from France to Japan to the US—and 200-plus more countries.

Veggies to Table also grows and sells flowers and bulbs to raise much-needed funds, but Berman and Ollier strongly feel that people need food for the spirit as well as the body, so they also give away a bounty of blooms, from dahlias and zinnias to tulips and sunflowers. These free bouquets have brought joy to pantry recipients, teachers, police, healthcare workers, and Hannaford and Reny employees, among many others.

To learn more about Veggies to Table, visit https://www.veggiestotable.org/