One solution for Maine's struggling fishing industry? Give fillets away for free

One solution for Maine's struggling fishing industry? Give fillets away for free toggle caption Ryan David Brown for NPR Grocery prices got you down? Learn how to cut your food bill with NPR's four-part newsletter. Sign up here for budgeting tips, meal planning and more. Surging food costs and fuel prices are pummeling Maine's struggling groundfishing industry. But a pandemic-era program is helping to keep it afloat as inflation worsens, while also aiming to create a new generation of seafood lovers. Fishermen Feeding Mainers began in late 2020 and raises money to buy locally caught fish, process it and donate the frozen fillets to schools and food banks in Maine. So far, it has spent more than $4 million on the purchasing and processing of about 1.3 million pounds of locally caught fish. Sponsor Message "Before this [program], chances were you could get down to some really scary-low prices," said Boothbay fisherman Devyn Campbell of the amount he could earn for his catch. toggle caption Ryan David Brown for NPR That's in part because the market for local fish dried up early in the COVID-19 pandemic when restaurants closed to in-person dining. "COVID destroyed all fish prices," Campbell said. The arrival of the program threw a lifeline to Maine's struggling groundfishermen, who target bottom-dwelling species like cod and haddock. It also offered a free food source to locals at a time of worsening food insecurity. Now in its sixth year, Fishermen Feeding Mainers is helping local fishing crews deal with persistent financial pressures and is also affording places that don't usually offer fish — such as public schools — a chance to serve it up. "A lot of parents, teachers, even nutritional staff were kind of hesitant about it at first, because they're like, 'Kids don't like fish,'" said Mary Hudson, director of fisheries programs at the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association, which operates the program. "They love it." toggle caption Ryan David Brown for NPR The Maine Coast Fishermen's Association has donated more than 1.8 million meals to food banks, schools and other institutions since October 2020. Last year alone, the program gave away over 200,000 meals. Sponsor Message And Hudson said the program could continue to pay dividends for years, as those students grow up and become consumers themselves. "On a selfish note, I'm like, this is creating future markets for us as well," she said. How the program works Fishermen Feeding Mainers began with a roughly $374,000 donation from a foundation that chose to remain anonymous. Since then, the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association has netted private donations, grants and state and federal funding to keep the program afloat. During auctions at the Portland Fish Exchange, Hudson keeps a close eye on how fish prices fluctuate. When the price of a species dips below a certain level, Hudson uses program funds to buy the fish before the price sinks too low. The fish is filleted and frozen, and food banks and schools have to come to Portland to pick it up. (Hudson said several school districts near the northern tip of Maine have driven more than 10 hours round trip multiple times for the free haul.) toggle caption Ryan David Brown for NPR It's a boon for food banks and schools, many of which may not be able to afford to purchase fish with rising inflation. Retail seafood prices rose at the end of 2025, according to the industry news website SeafoodSource. The program also allows fishermen like Campbell to continue working with some security against unpredictable auction prices. Though he's still grappling with rising fuel costs and federal catch quotas, he said the financial picture for local fishermen has been improving. And the benefits extend beyond the Portland docks. "We are featuring fish more often" On a Thursday in March, local haddock was on the lunch menu at nearby Westbrook High School. Mary Emerson, the Westbrook School Department's school nutrition director, said the Fishermen Feeding Mainers program has enabled her to serve fish to students without having to fret over the cost or how to source it. Instead, she and her staff spend their time deciding which recipes to cook and how to market them to school-age kids. toggle caption Ryan David Brown for NPR "We're really proud about what we're doing, because we are featuring fish more often during the month," Emerson said. She has transported as much as 200 pounds of fish at a time in her Toyota Prius. Sponsor Message On offer that day were fish tacos with shredded napa cabbage, pineapple salsa and a tangy Greek yogurt sauce on a whole grain tortilla, served with a side of cilantro lime rice and lentil stew. "It's good. It really is," said Westbrook High School senior Temperance Overby. "It's better with the yogurt sauce they had drizzled on top of it." toggle caption Ryan David Brown for NPR Another senior, Mady Worcester, said she doesn't eat much fish outside school but opted for the taco, enticed by the pineapple