About 85 fourth and fifth graders from Fort Fairfield Elementary School picked thousands of pounds of corn and onions at a field in Caribou Friday to help supply food pantries in The County.
The project began when Principal Sue Parks contacted Catholic Charities Hunger and Relief Services Director Dixie Shaw to ask if students could help on the farm.
Catholic Charities partners with farmer Ryan Guerrette in Caribou, who lets Shaw use up to 25 acres of land each year to grow vegetables that the organization distributes to the needy through its food bank to 24 food pantries across northern Maine.
Shaw said about 85 students came out to help Friday.
“We’re picking onions right now,” Shaw said at about 11 a.m. Friday, “and this is the first year we’ve grown onions for our ‘Farm for ME” project.”
The youngsters had already finished harvesting the corn by that time, and Shaw said it would be safe to estimate that thousands of pounds had been picked.
Fort Fairfield student David Ybarrando said he and his classmates had picked “hundreds and hundreds of corn pieces.”
“We’re picking some onions right now,” Ybarrando said. “We’re almost done our bucket, and once that’s done we’re going to drop it off and then we’re going to keep going.”
Fourth grader Melanie Gagnon said this was her first time picking vegetables on the farm, but that some of her fellow classmates may have done similar work in the past. Gagnon said she and the others picked “a bunch” and that she would go back and do it again if asked.
Aubrey Ainsworth, a fourth grader at Fort Fairfield, said, “It might be a little bit of hard work, but it’s fun, and it’s good to help people.”
Roughly 85 fourth and fifth graders from Fort Fairfield Elementary School help pick onions and corn from fields in Caribou on Friday, Sept. 29, for the Catholic Charities of Maine Farm for ME project.
(Christopher Bouchard | Aroostook Republican)
Ainsworth added that this was not her first time working in a field.
“My daddy owns a lot of property, so we have to go and help them,” she said, adding that the experience is better than how she initially imagined it to be.
“I thought it was going to be sunny and hot, and that we’d be really sore,” Ainsworth said, “but it’s cool.”
Fifth grader Tristan Deschene said he and the other students had “picked corn and onions pretty much all day,” adding that they were treated to a lunch of sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches, broccoli, an apple, and chocolate milk.
Fort Fairfield Educational Technician Amy Logan, who was one of a handful of school staffers monitoring the children, said the overall experience was “very exciting” and a “good opportunity, because a lot of the kids wouldn’t work harvest like we did in years past.”
“The kids are really excited,” Logan said. “This is going to feed quite a few people, and they’re excited for Dixie to come back next week and tell them how much they harvested.”
Logan added that Shaw was “thrilled” about how fast and thorough the youngsters worked.
“I’m excited about how excited the kids are,” Logan said. “We’ve had a lot of warm weather and it’s truly cold today, but they’re still excited, still smiling, still listening, and working really hard.”
Shaw also was excited about the enthusiasm of the youngsters and the positive impact the project seemed to be having on them.
“It’s kind of like the old days,” Shaw said. “They’re getting a lesson in good ‘ol County work ethic and we’re getting an opportunity to get some of our crop harvested, which will go to our 24 food pantries that we service throughout Aroostook County.”
