Letter to the editor,

Volunteers with Biddeford Community Gardens have worked incredibly hard planting, growing, weeding, watering and maintaining our beautiful community gardens this season; the number of hours, countless. The commitment to share the harvest equitably amongst our volunteers and the community programs aiding those dealing with food insecurity (Biddeford Food Pantry, Bon Appetit Community Meals, and Youth Full Maine) is our powerful driving force.

This year, we went with a communal format, encouraging Biddeford residents who were interested in growing food to get involved an hour or two each week helping to maintain these beautiful garden spaces, in exchange for the opportunity to harvest vegetables for themselves and their families. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

But then someone thought that it was okay to go to the Williams Court Garden on Saturday night, Aug. 13, and help themselves to all of the potatoes (before they were ready), all of the sweet potatoes, all of the carrots and beets, and gleaned all of the peppers, eggplant, and squash,

The profound selfishness these actions revealed broke our hearts absolutely. Perhaps the person or persons who did this needed food. But they took all of the food for themselves, and they did so without putting in any of the work and left the mess for us to clean up.

If anyone has information about the individual or individuals responsible for these actions, please message us on our Biddeford Community Gardens Facebook page, or email desk@biddefordcommunitygardens.org

Thank you.

The Farm Teams of Biddeford Community Gardens