The Buckwheat Project: ‘The solution is a lot closer to home than we think’

FARMINGTON – Growing up in Frenchville, Paul Dumais was accustomed to the stack of fluffy ployes that centered every meal with his family. The smell of the hot flatbreads frying to perfection on the cast iron skillet was just the smell of home.

It wasn’t until Dumais left for college that he began to realize how unique the tower of ployes, and the act of sitting together to eat them, were. Between classes, Dumais started working on a nearby farm where he learned the skills of growing and caring for food. Before long Dumais felt his priorities shifting from text books to food. The importance of what he was doing became more obvious as time went on, aligning with his upbringing in rural Maine of farming, eating, and taking care of the community around him.

Dumais went on to become a priest, finding the backbone of his desire to care for people in the words of the Bible. Inspired by a call to action by Pope Francis in 2015 Dumais threw himself into feeding the hungry and studying the issues of food insecurity throughout Maine.

Which led him back to the smell of frying ployes.

Dumais’ family is one of two in the entire state that grows the buckwheat used to make the pancake-style flatbread. As he began wading deeper into issues of food insecurity he realized the solution was not just in dropping off a can of beans at the local pantry.

Maine currently ranks ninth in the nation for food insecurity, with one in five children experiencing hunger issues, according to Good Shepherd Food Bank.

“People working at the food pantries I’ve visited have told me that they rarely meet someone who is coming only for food. People want to talk. They want to be asked how they are doing. They want to be known and remembered,” Dumais said.

When he started the Buckwheat Project, Dumais knew it wasn’t just about getting the ployes mix into the hands of those who needed it.

“Food brings people together. It is such a basic human need, it has the ability of reaching across religions, across politics, across class…,” he said.

The Buckwheat Project is a multi-faceted one. It gets highly nutritious, easy to make, quickly satisfying and delicious, food into the bellies of those who might be hungry. For those who don’t need the mix off the shelf of the food pantry, and can afford to buy it, their dollars go straight back to the pantries and to the people who need it.

The bags of mix also promote a traditional Maine crop that dates back 1785.

“We’re helping to feed people in Maine with food grown in Maine. This has to be a part of the solution,” Dumais said.

He went on to explain that only one generation ago it was a normal activity to grow, harvest and preserve food that would fill the cupboards for a family for an entire year. This, he said, has to be one of our solutions to food insecurity.

“Why not do things with more intention? Plant a garden and share a few things with our neighbor. Or invite someone over for a meal who you know is struggling to eat. Sometimes the solution is a lot closer to home than we think,” he said.