Buying fresh fruits and vegetables does not have to cost a lot of money. That’s what Tracy Hall of the Boothbay Region Land Trust took away from a local foods presentation in downtown Boothbay Harbor last month.

The Eat Local Foods Talk, hosted by the land trust and brought to residents by the Portland-based Eat Local Foods Coalition of Maine, was a discussion on how people can transform their diets to embrace locally grown foods. It came at just the right time of year, just as many people have been working in their gardens and as farm stand owners lifted their awnings for another season.

Growing your own food and buying from farmers’ markets are two good ways to embrace local foods into your everyday diet, Hall said.

One needs pots and tools to grow their own food and the space to do it. Food pantry organizers say their clients can’t afford to pay the prices asked for at farmers’ market stands.

There are programs in place aimed at fixing that problem but the situation is relatively new and so are the solutions.

Co-president of the Boothbay Region Food Pantry Tom Wilson said grocery stores sell produce at a cheaper price, which clients are more apt to buy, but food vouchers and state and federal food programs will give more people access to locally produced food, such as fresh fruits and vegetables.

The pantry currently accepts donations of fresh fruit and vegetables from local farmers, nonprofit organizations such as The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset and local supermarkets, like Hannaford Brothers.

Some Hannaford stores stock vegetables grown on Maine farms. Wilson said these donations only make up about 15 percent of the food pantry’s inventory during the peak summer season, while much of their food is brought by truck from The Good Shepherd Food Bank.

“If we relied on only local food and had to pay for it, we’d be out of business,” Wilson said.

Food insecurity

According to the national nonprofit Feeding America, Maine has just fewer than 200,000 “food insecure” people, about 15 percent of the state’s population.

According to a June 2006 World Food Summit report, “food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”

In Lincoln County, there are 4,700 people whose diets do not meet the food security definition.

The Boothbay Region Food Pantry has guidelines for clients that determine how much food individuals and families qualify for each month. Clients are given vouchers for perishable food items at the Boothbay Hannaford. The pantry also has an emergency food assistance program.

Among the top 10 food items people most often pick up are: cereal, juice, coffee, sugar, flour, vegetable oil, canned soup, canned vegetables, peanut butter and jars of jelly.

“I know there are a lot of little old ladies who say they don’t want to take food out of people’s mouths,” Wilson said. “But we’re not hurting for food.”

While many of the pantry’s clients live in rental properties and don’t have the means to grow their own vegetables, Wilson said that many local farmers donate extra produce to the pantry.

He said the Boothbay Region Community Resources received a $25,000 grant to help low income individuals and families get food sold at farmers’ markets. People will be able to get locally produced fruits and vegetables just down the road. Wilson hopes that at the end of the season, the grant will allow people to purchase other seasonal produce, like potatoes and winter squash.

“That’s so awesome,” Jan Goranson, co-owner of Goranson Farm in Dresden, said of the grant.

Goranson Farm sells produce and its farm-made products at the Boothbay Farmers’ Market on the town common. She added that fruits and vegetables from her farm also go to Harbor View Apartments and Bay Landing, subsidized housing that many elderly residents call home. Through a grant provided by the Maine Department of Agriculture, people can get $50 worth of vegetables and fruit grown on her farm.

Other programs, such as the Women, Infants and Children and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program offer other resources for people who need access to locally grown foods.

Goranson said it really is unfair to compare the value of fruits and vegetables sold in local supermarkets to what is sold at farmers’ markets. Her farm is not an industrial enterprise. It is certified organic and produce is picked fresh each day for the market by local employees, paid an hourly wage.

“In terms of value to the local economy, we’re a darn site higher than large grocery stores who get their food in mass quantities trucked from miles away,” Goranson said. “I don’t look in Hannaford to see what they’re charging; I see what it costs to grow the food.”

Goranson said she and other farmers are not getting wealthy on selling their produce. It costs a lot to grow the fruits and vegetables they sell at the farmers’ market, but it tastes better, she said. Besides, she said the more people who buy from local farmers better support the local economy.

“People love driving down our road, because we are producing food and not housing developments,” Goranson said. “We’re working hard to keep the land in food production.”

Those who don’t have a garden are encouraged to try and start one, or to purchase food from a local farm stand. Excess tomatoes, squash – which flourish under the summer sun – and other vegetables from one’s garden can be donated to a local food bank.