Today's pictures are stolen shamelessly from the Maine Sunday Telegram, which ran a story by Kelley Bouchard about a farmer named Bill Spiller in Wells, Maine, south of Portland. Spiller grew an extra $20,000 of food crops this year to give away. To help his neighbors in need, he planted, weeded, harvested, cleaned, and delivered to a food pantry a total of more than 10,000 pounds of fresh, top-quality produce: strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, watermelons, squash, corn, apples, and carrots.
As you can see in the picture of Bill's hands holding fresh-dug carrots, he's not a young guy, and the work is rough. He says he's never made much money, but even so, the portion of his crop that he gives away is "surplus." Every year, he and his wife dedicate more and more rows in their fields to the York County homeless shelter and food pantry. They say their goal is to give away 20% or more of what they grow.
More Mainers have turned to the food pantry recently as it becomes harder for people to feed their families. This week, more than a thousand people in York County will enjoy Thanksgiving dinners made possible by the work of Bill Spiller's hands.
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