Garden project gives people a helping hand
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
PRESQUE ISLE NATIVE Mariah LeMieux-Lupien created the Hand to Hand Organic Garden Project three years ago, and continues to grow vegetables for family, friends, as well as the local homeless shelter and soup kitchen. In this June 2008 photo, LeMieux-Lupien is shown weeding rows after the first weeds begin to spout.
PRESQUE ISLE – While some people may have two left feet, Mariah LeMieux-Lupien says everyone has a green thumb, and the Presque Isle native is sharing her love of gardening – and the produce itself – with community members.
LeMieux-Lupien created the Hand to Hand Organic Garden Project three years ago at the suggestion of her then-5-year-old son, Samuel Guyan.
“He decided he didn’t want to eat his peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he threw it on the floor. I flipped out,” she laughed. “I said to him, ‘You realize that there are other children who are starving and while their Moms and Dads might be working, they can’t afford to put food on the table. There’d be another child who’d be ready, willing and able to eat what you don’t want.’
“He just kind of looked at me … it was an ‘ah-ha’ moment … like a little light bulb went off over his head and he said, ‘Well, Mommy, why don’t we grow a garden for them?’ I said it sounded like a great idea and called my mother who said I could pick whatever size garden I wanted,” said LeMieux-Lupien. “Being small, I didn’t want to overwhelm my son, so we had a little 15-foot by 15-foot garden plot. That first year we had 40 pounds of tomatoes from one 15-foot row.”
LeMieux-Lupien wanted to teach Samuel the spirit of giving – as her mother did with her – so she handed him bags of produce – green beans, beets, carrots and tomatoes – and he presented them to the manager of the Sister Mary O’Donnell Shelter in Presque Isle.
“We went probably twice a month to the homeless shelter and the Martha & Mary’s Soup Kitchen with garbage bags full of lettuce and spinach,” she said. “I usually plant somewhere from the middle to the end of May, and being a gardener as long as I have, I know there are some things like green beans and peas – if you pick them every week or so – new flowers will sprout and you can re-pick from those plants. It isn’t just a one-time harvest. We were able to donate a lot of food from that 15-foot by 15-foot garden plot. My son and I never ate from it; we always gave 100 percent.”
Gardening has been a way of life for as long as LeMieux-Lupien can remember.
“I’ve done volunteer work my whole life, and when I was a small child, my mother and I, and my step-dad, had a 60-foot by 60-foot garden on a 5.5 acre lot, and we would garden every year, and can and freeze,” she said. “Whatever we couldn’t use ourselves, my Mom would give away. My Mom taught me that spirit of giving.”
These days, LeMieux-Lupien lives in an apartment where gardening is more of a challenge.
“My Mom wasn’t able to have a garden space this summer for us, so I’ve been doing ‘container gardening,’ which I’ve never done before,” she said. “It’s kind of trial and error. My kitchen was plastered with bean, tomato and squash plants. I’ve already given a bunch of plants away. I’ve given some to the Crystal Wesleyan Church, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society at Northern Maine Community College for their flower sale fund-raiser, family members and friends. It’s really an outreach. It isn’t just about me doing the work; it’s about starting plants for people who are nervous about starting gardening. I’ve also given away a lot of seeds. It’s like a ripple effect; I like doing that.
“It frustrates me that there are people in The County that are going hungry and we have fields filled with broccoli, potatoes, carrots and corn,” said LeMieux-Lupien. “I know of people who will literally work for food, but when you look around there is food, but some people don’t have access to it. Food stamps don’t cut it; the economy is making everything harder and people are going without. I’m just trying to do my part to give back to those people. Even if it’s a handful of green beans or a 5-pound bag of peas, you never know how one good meal can make a difference in a person’s life.”
The garden project is catching on, LeMieux-Lupien said.
“It’s starting out small, but I’ve gotten family and friends involved. I have a Facebook page where I offer gardening tips and alternative methods,” she said, noting that all of her green bean plants were planted in coffee cans as a way to recycle products from home. “Whether this takes off and becomes big or not, I’m always going to do it.”
LeMieux-Lupien said she would be most appreciative if someone would let her garden on their land.
“Now living in an apartment, I’m like a fish out of water … a gardener without land,” she said. “If someone would let me garden on their land and carry out my mission, that would be wonderful.”
Her dream is to one day have the garden project encompass 10 acres.
“I’d like to see a small parking area, handicap accessible raised bed gardens, some small raised bed areas for children, a green house with a small office, and the rest be open plots of land for individuals or families to come and grow their own gardens,” LeMieux-Lupien said. “I would like to have it be Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association (MOFGA) certified.”
She credits Janet Greico, an English teacher at NMCC who also co-owns and operates an organic farm in Woodland with her daughter, with helping her develop the project name, as well as the campus community for giving her encouragement and support.
“I had always been pretty shy, and one day Pamela Buck, my computer-aided drafting instructor, gave me an application for the Maine National Education for Women Leadership Summer Institute,” said LeMieux-Lupien. “That conference really helped me with my public speaking and leadership skills and gave me a lot of confidence. That confidence has allowed me to share my vision of the Hand to Hand Organic Garden Project with others, so I give my NMCC family credit for helping me push forward in what I believe in.”
SAMUEL POE GUYAN, son of Mariah LeMieux-Lupien, presented Susan Mitchell, executive director of Homeless Services of Aroostook, pictured at right, with tomatoes his mother grew as part of the Hand to Hand Organic Garden Project in 2008. LeMieux-Lupien said Mitchell’s desk was “covered with tomatoes, as well as her floor and every other flat surface in her office.”
For more information on the Hand to Hand Organic Garden Project, e-mail LeMieux-Lupien at mlemi19@nmcc.edu.
