Published August 31, 2021

How The Lost Kitchen Helped Us Strengthen The Waldo County Food System

The story behind our special relationship with The Lost Kitchen restaurant.

We want to take a moment to share the story behind our special relationship with The Lost Kitchen restaurant in Freedom, Maine. We first worked with Chef Erin French when we launched in 2020, and her thoughtful support – adding the option to donate to our campaign as part of The Lost Kitchen’s online checkout system – was a shot in the arm for our hunger-relief efforts.

“So many of our supporters recognize that dining out is a privilege that we wanted to engage them in supporting our community,” says Erin.

We thanked Erin and her partner Michael Dutton by dropping off a handwritten card in The Lost Kitchen mailbox. Within a few days, Erin reached out to our co-founder Colleen Hanlon-Smith to discuss a special program to better serve small farms and food-insecure community members moving forward. Erin proposed asking interested diners for a small donation to Waldo County Bounty in order to gain early access to The Lost Kitchen reservation system.

“The idea aligned perfectly with our shared commitment to our farmers and community,” says Hanlon-Smith. The Waldo County Bounty leadership team worked late into the night to create a new website, establish customer service capacities, and prepare materials for the media to dovetail the timing with The Lost Kitchen.

The Lost Kitchen announcement went out on May 18, less than a week after Erin had first reached out. Due to the overwhelming popularity of The Lost Kitchen, nearly $350,000 in donations poured in from across the country and around the globe, significantly bolstering Waldo County Bounty’s ability to support food-insecure residents with food from local small farms.

We cannot thank Erin, Michael, and the supporters of The Lost Kitchen enough for all they’ve done to further our hunger-relief efforts. Now on more secure footing, we can take a holistic approach to expanding our programs, including the Farm-to-Pantry, Gleaning, and Gardening initiatives. We are currently conducting a participatory planning process to gather ideas with stakeholders across all sectors to grow our collective efforts to strengthen the Waldo County food system for all!

If you’d like to add your voice to the process, please send us an email at waldocountybounty@gmail.com and let us know you’d like to join the WCB Network. You’ll receive invitations to WCB Network meetings, which take place seasonally.