MAINE — Fishermen Feeding Mainers, a program operated by the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association, marked its sixth year of operation in late 2025 with more than $4 million spent on roughly 1.3 million pounds of locally caught fish. Since October 2020, the program has donated more than 1.8 million meals to food banks, schools and other institutions across Maine, including over 200,000 meals in 2025.

The program raises money to buy locally caught fish, process it and donate the frozen fillets to public schools and food banks. It began in late 2020 with a roughly $374,000 donation from an anonymous foundation, and the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association has since netted private donations, grants and state and federal funding to sustain operations.

During auctions at the Portland Fish Exchange, Mary Hudson, director of fisheries programs at the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association, monitors how fish prices fluctuate and uses program funds to buy fish when prices dip below a certain level. The purchased fish is filleted and frozen, then collected by food banks and schools in Portland, Maine. Several school districts near the northern tip of the state have driven more than 10 hours round trip multiple times to pick up the free fish.

Hudson said the program also benefits the fishing industry's long-term prospects. "On a selfish note, I'm like, this is creating future markets for us as well," she said. The program provides fish to food banks and schools that may not be able to afford to purchase it as retail seafood prices rose at the end of 2025. It also offers fishermen a measure of security against unpredictable auction prices.

"Before this [program], chances were you could get down to some really scary-low prices," said Devyn Campbell, a Boothbay fisherman. "COVID destroyed all fish prices." Campbell said he is grappling with rising fuel costs and federal catch quotas but that the financial situation for local fishermen has been improving.

Fish from the program is being featured regularly on school menus. On a Thursday in March, local haddock was on the lunch menu at Westbrook High School, served as fish tacos with shredded napa cabbage, pineapple salsa and Greek yogurt sauce on a whole grain tortilla, accompanied by cilantro lime rice and lentil stew.

Some school kitchen staff are unaccustomed to handling and preparing raw fish. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute holds trainings for food service staff and develops classroom curricula to teach students about local fish, including tastings of recipes such as Iraqi Seven Spiced Fish and Buffalo Fish Dip. "They get to look at the fish, touch the fish, cut the fish, try different species next to each other and then make really simple recipes that they can taste themselves," said Sophie Scott, sustainable seafood program manager at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

"It's not the kids who we have to convince around getting fish on the menu," Scott said.