Food AND Medicine and the Eastern Maine Labor Council provided quality ingredients for 150 Thanksgiving dinners to laid-off workers and their families.

Thanks to all the unions, farmers, small businesses, religious leaders, and volunteers who helped to make this year's program great!  Click below for coverage.

• Laid-off workers get Thanksgiving gift (Bangor Daily News)
• Labor And Community Activists Assist Laid Off Workers (MPBN)
• Laid Off Mill Workers Get Thanksgiving Meal (WLBZ)
• Solidarity Harvest: Sharing at A Time of Giving Thanks (IBEW 1837)

Since 2003, EMLC and Food AND Medicine's Solidarity Harvest has brought quality Thanksgiving meals to over 3,300 laid off workers and their family mambers in Eastern Maine. In addition, the program brings unions, farmers, and small businesses together in solidarity to work toward long-term solutions that will build our local economy and keep jobs in Maine. As much as possible, we buy or accept donations of only fresh, local foods.

This year's program benefits 150 laid off workers and their families in:

• Pinkham Sawmill in Ashland
• Katahdin Paper in Millinocket
• Domtar Paper in Baileyville
• Red Shield in Old Town
• DHL Delivery in Brewer 

Each meal consisted of a turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, cider, butter, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, squash, rolls, pumpkin pie, and more.  Almost all ingredients are purchased from or donated by local farms, bakeries, and businesses, to support good jobs and strengthen our economy.  Funds for the meals are generously donated by union members, local churches and synagogues, and community members who have pitched in at our Labor Day Concert, Flea Market Sale (see this article in the Bangor Daily News), and Haunted House/Harvest Festival.

None of this would be possible without the help of many unions, farms, faith organizations, local businesses, laid off workers, and other volunteers who have and continue to donate money, time, and produce. Special thanks to IBEW 1837 for organizing a fundraising drive at their workplaces, CWA 1400 for holding a food collection, Machinists Local S6 at Bath Iron Works for organizing a gate collection, and Central Maine Labor Council, USW Locals 9 and 1310, Firemen & Oilers Local 3, Ofelia's Community Resource Center, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bangor and Congregation Beth-El for their generous donations.

For more information, call or e-mail Food AND Medicine.