MAINE PUBLIC • December 31, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is contributing to rising hunger in Maine, and at the same time much of the state’s seafood harvest is struggling to find a market. Now a new program is addressing both challenges at once. Mary Hudson of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, which spearheaded the program, says the value of the state’s groundfish harvest dropped by almost 75% this year. And even at pennies per pound, some of it went unsold. “So we were trying to figure out a way to help them out throughout this, and at the same time reading about food insecurity in Maine and people really struggling during the pandemic. And it just seemed like the perfect marriage of two causes,” she says. By last week, Fishermen Feeding Mainers had bought and donated 150,000 meals worth of fresh protein from the Gulf of Maine.