Maine’s small commercial groundfishing fleet has been squeezed by rising fuel and operating costs, federal catch limits and competition from cheaper imports. The COVID-19 pandemic made things worse when restaurant demand collapsed and auction prices for cod, haddock and other bottom-dwelling fish plunged.
One response has quietly linked fishermen to hungry Mainers: Fishermen Feeding Mainers. Launched in late 2020, the program buys locally caught fish when market prices dip, pays to have it filleted and frozen, and donates the product to schools, food banks and other community organizations across the state.
The results are measurable. Organizers say they have spent more than $4 million to purchase and process roughly 1.3 million pounds of locally caught fish. Since October 2020 the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, which runs the program, has donated the equivalent of more than 1.8 million meals, including more than 200,000 meals in a single recent year.
How it works
An initial gift of about $374,000 helped get the effort started. Since then the association has combined private donations, grants and state and federal funding to keep it going. Staff watch prices at the Portland Fish Exchange auctions; when a species falls below a threshold, program funds are used to buy the lot, preventing prices from dropping to unsustainably low levels.
The fish are processed onshore—filleted and frozen—and recipient organizations come to Portland to collect shipments. Some school districts make long drives, with districts near Maine’s northern tip reporting round trips of more than 10 hours to pick up free fillets.
A lifeline for fishermen and processors
For working fishermen the program has served as a financial safety valve. When auction prices slide, program purchases provide predictable demand and revenue for boats and shore-side processors, easing the pressure of a volatile market. Fishermen still contend with high fuel bills, crew costs and regulatory limits on catch, but the extra demand helps cover some overhead and keeps crews working.
Mary Hudson, director of fisheries programs at the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, points out that the program benefits multiple links in the local supply chain: it helps boats go to sea, gives processors steady business and delivers high-quality protein to people who need it.
Putting fish on school menus
The donations also give schools a practical way to serve local seafood without added cost. School nutrition directors can focus on recipes and student outreach rather than sourcing and price concerns. At Westbrook High School, for example, haddock has appeared regularly on lunch menus—served in creative dishes like fish tacos with pineapple salsa and Greek yogurt sauce—and students have responded positively.
Beyond the cafeteria line, organizations such as the Gulf of Maine Research Institute offer training for kitchen staff unfamiliar with handling raw fish, develop classroom curricula about local fisheries, and run taste-tests and recipe development. Those efforts help overcome adult reluctance—kitchen staff, parents and administrators are often the ones who need convincing—and can build lasting demand as students grow up accustomed to local seafood.
Scaling and innovations
Some districts that began with donated fillets now buy fish directly from local distributors, giving them choice over species, timing and delivery. The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association has also developed ready-to-serve products—fish cakes, soups and similar items—that schools can purchase at a discount, aided by state programs that reimburse part of local food purchases.
Context and challenges
Groundfishing in New England has a long history but has faced major setbacks. Overfishing in past decades led to collapses of several species, and the Gulf of Maine is still recovering while warming faster than nearly all other ocean regions. That environmental stress, combined with federal quotas and rising inputs, has thinned the fleet: Hudson estimates the number of boats landing in Portland fell from more than 300 in the 1990s to about 20 today.
Those broader pressures mean the program is not a cure-all. But by creating reliable off-takes when prices crater, Fishermen Feeding Mainers buys time and income for fishermen and processors and increases the local availability of fresh-caught seafood for families and schools.
The bigger payoff
Leaders of the initiative also see potential long-term benefits: kids exposed to well-prepared local fish may become future consumers, creating new markets for local harvests. For now, the program serves two immediate goals—supporting a struggling regional fishery and addressing food insecurity—while building relationships between harvesters, processors, schools and community organizations that could strengthen Maine’s seafood economy over time.