Maine Senior FarmShare Program Updates!

The Maine Senior FarmShare Program is now open! For those of you who have never heard of it, here is your introduction. For those of you who know about it, and maybe are longtime participants, here are some very important updates.

Maine Senior FarmShare Program is part of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program.

This program provides eligible adults a $50 share to a participating farm. In partnership with the Maine Federation of Farmers Markets, there are also farmers markets enrolled, so your share is marketwide. This gives more choice and selection to participants and helps to ease the administrative tasks of individual farmers. Participants can only sign up with one farm or market per year.

Fresh vegetables, fruit, cut herbs, and raw honey are eligible for purchase with the program. This means that with the participating farmers markets, only some of the vendors can accept the vouchers. Participants can spend a little at a time over the season or can spend it all at once.

The basics for participation are to be income eligible and 60 or older or income eligible and 55 or older if Native American. Income eligibility did increase slightly this year to $29,526 for a one-person household and $40,034 for a two-person household. See the website for more details about income limits.

Now for some of the changes for the 2026 season. For individual farms, the biggest change is that seniors will now be signing up online prior to visiting their farm. The good news is that you can have help or a proxy to complete the form, and the application remains very simple and short.

The online enrollment form should be accessible as of June 1 at maine.gov/dacf/seniorfarmshare. While this is the easiest and fastest way, you may also call 287-3491 to schedule a phone appointment. If you are enrolling with a farmers’ market, you will come straight to the market and enroll at the info booth, though this year we will complete the application on a computer at the info booth instead of paper.

There are also some changes with participating Maine Senior FarmShare Program farms this year. Damariscotta Farmers Market is a participant for the second year. SeaLyon Farm in Alna continues to participate, though you will have to go directly to their farm rather than seeing them at the Wiscasset Farmers Market, which is no longer running.

As of now, there will not be a participating farm at Boothbay Farmers Market. However, Bath Farmers Market is enrolled for the first time this year! Stay tuned for any other new additions to the program.

Lastly, enrollment will end on Monday, Sept. 7 this year, so be sure to at least enroll as soon as possible, even if you don’t use your share until later this season. If you have questions, feel free to call us at Healthy Lincoln County at 563-1330 ext. 5.