FREEPORT – This spring and summer, residents of both Freeport and Pownal who have visited the Freeport Community Services food pantry have had a special treat – fresh produce that rivals that seen in any grocery store.

The vegetables come from Wolfe’s Neck Farm in Freeport, and they have been grown, cared for and harvested by a group of four teenagers who have been working at the farm all season as part of a pilot program.

The Teen Ag Crew Program participants are Abrin Berkemeyer, a senior at Freeport High School; Emily Harvey of Pownal, a sophomore at Freeport High School; Andrew Hollyday, a junior at Cape Elizabeth High School; and Caroline Wild, a recent Brunswick High School graduate who is headed to Smith College in Massachusetts.

The program is modeled after a similar program at Aldermere Farm, a Maine Coast Heritage Trust organization in Rockport, and it is sponsored by the Horizon Foundation, the Environmental Funders Network, the Northeast Agricultural Education Foundation, Farm Credit Northeast AGEnhancement, the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Most of the crops grown by the kids as part of the program are donated to both the Freeport and Brunswick food pantries.

Taking a break from helping her crew prepare their produce for a senior citizen lunch at the Freeport Community Center last week, Teen Ag crew coordinator Kaitlyn Gardner said the kids work part time in the spring, full time in the summer and part time in the fall. She said the teens are paid for their work, which totals about 35-40 hours in the summer and less in the fall and spring, when school is in session.

“They work hard,” Gardner said. “I have been so lucky with this crew, they’re amazing. They all work together so well. There’s just really a fun, playful energy.”

“It’s both an educational opportunity, (with) job skills training and also a work opportunity,” Gardner said. “We’re trying to educate them about how to grow food in a sustainable, ecological way.

“They’re learning everything from how to make the plan for the garden to how to space out all the plants, to when to harvest, how to weed (and) integrated pest management,” she continued, adding that the kids also are working with the farm’s animals.

“They learn to trim goat hooves, to shear sheep,” Gardner said. They are also taking care of the farm’s Thanksgiving turkeys.

Berkemeyer said he heard about the program after Gardner reached out to Freeport High School staff looking for participants. He said the thought of working on a farm appealed to him.

“I really liked the idea of working outside,” he said, adding that his grandfather raised a lot of his own produce and he was very interested in learning how to do it himself.

Harvey also heard about the program through school.

“It sounded like a good opportunity to work on a farm,” she said.

For Wild, the Teen Ag Program was a natural fit.

“I do 4-H through Wolfe’s Neck, so that’s where I heard about it,” Wild said. “I’m interested in agriculture, animal sciences and sustainability and it all came together in this.”

Hollyday has the furthest commute, traveling 45 minutes from Cape Elizabeth, but he said he has genuinely enjoyed his time at the Freeport farm.

“Last summer, I worked for Cultivating Community in Portland, which is a nonprofit, and I knew I wanted to continue with agriculture this summer,” Hollyday said. “It definitely has been worth it. There isn’t any other program like it in my area.”

The students all said that they have learned a lot from the program.

“(I’ve learned) so many things,” Wild said. “The concrete things like actual plants and weeds and how to grow stuff, and animal skills, and also how to hay, all the physical labor.”

Asked for their favorite tasks, they provided a broad range of answers.

“I like the daily work in the garden most,” Hollyday said. “I like learning about the plants and how to manage pests and the daily tasks of working with the plants and vegetables.”

“I love harvesting. That’s so much fun, you get to see what you’ve grown,” Wild said. “I love doing anything with animals.”

Harvey and Berkemeyer both said they liked one of the more physical tasks.

“I really like haying,” Berkemeyer said.

“It’s fun throwing hay bales and keeping your balance on top of the tractors,” Harvey agreed.

Weeding the pumpkins was definitely not a favorite task of the crew this summer.

“The weeds got about 3 feet tall,” Berkemeyer said. “That was really rough. It was really long, it was about a third of an acre of pumpkins to weed.”

Wild said weeding onions was something she didn’t particularly enjoy.

“It’s hard to pull the weeds without pulling the onions,” she said.

Hollyday said he didn’t mind weeding as much as he minded cleaning out the animal stalls in the barn.

“It just smells terrible,” he said.

And while the students have certainly benefited from the program, their hard work and dedication provided, healthy, organic produce to people who might not normally have access to such things.

Sue Mack, the family services coordinator for Freeport Community Services, runs the food pantry at the center, and has been impressed with the Teen Ag kids and the food that they have provided to her clients.

“I think it’s awesome,” Mack said. “These kids are brilliant and motivated, and they’ve turned out the nicest produce.”

Mack said the food pantry does get produce from other farms and some is donated from area grocery stores, but the vegetables from the Wolfe’s Neck teens stand out.

“Those kids turned out really high-quality stuff,” Mack said, adding that the kids have brought in such things as fresh greens, kale, carrots and squash.

Most of the food goes to the pantry, but some has been used in the lunches the center has been providing to local children this summer.

Reaction to the food from the program has been very positive, Mack said.

“I had one senior citizen come in and she almost fainted when saw the beets,” she said. “She said, ‘I haven’t seen beets like this in years.’ She was really excited.”

“I think we’re very fortunate to have this Teen Ag program,” Mack said. “I think other food pantries would be jealous if they saw what we’re giving away here.”

Dave Herring, Wolfe’s Neck Farm executive director, said that 98 percent of the food raised through the Teen Ag program goes to the Freeport and Brunswick pantries. The rest goes for sale to parents of summer camp students at the farm and at the Freeport farmers market.

He said the reason for selling some of the produce is “to start to build some sustainability for the program for next year. Because it’s been such a big success this year, we’re definitely going to push ahead with it next year. And we’re going to seek some additional funding and we want to be able to show that we already have some funds allocated towards that, and what better place for those funds to come from than the work that we are doing.”

“This program has so much potential,” Herring said. “We have people that need food here. Why would we bring it from far away when we can grow it at the farm? And the benefit for us is significant, because we get to introduce teenagers to all facets of agriculture and production, as well as connecting with a community resource like (Freeport Community Services). There are so many wins associated with this program that we’re definitely going to look to build it.”

“This program is so good in so many ways,” Mack said. “To teach this generation about sustainable farming is unbelievable.”

Caroline Wild of Brunswick, a Wolfe’s Neck Farm Teen Ag crew member, works with some young turkeys at the farm recently.
Harvesting kale are, from left, Emily Harvey, Caroline Wild, and Andrew Hollyday.   
A sample of the harvest gathered by the Wolfe’s Neck Farm Teen Ag crew.    
Members of the Wolfe’s Neck Farm Teen Ag crew, from left, Abrin Berkemeyer of Freeport, Caroline Wild of Brunswick, Andrew Hollyday of Cape Elizabeth and Emily Harvey of Pownal join Teen Ag Program Coordinator Kaitlyn Gardner in the kitchen of the Freeport Community Center last week.