Growing to Give hires first paid director as farm expands impact

Growing to Give has hired its first paid executive director, a move that signals the Brunswick farm has outgrown a purely volunteer model and now needs steadier leadership as planting season ramps up. Molly Cooper took the job in March, bringing nonprofit and summer-camp leadership experience to a role that sits at the crossroads of food access, education and hands-on community work.

The change matters because the farm is no longer operating at a small scale. Growing to Give now has a staff of six, though volunteers still do much of the planting, harvesting and day-to-day fieldwork. Last year, the farm donated more than 18,500 pounds of fresh organic produce to hunger-relief organizations. Since it started in 2017, it has produced roughly 100,000 meals, with its produce moving through partners such as the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program and Good Shepherd Food Bank before reaching people across six counties.

That reach grew out of modest beginnings. Growing to Give was launched in April 2017 by John Newlin, Patty Carton and Theda Lyden at Scatter Good Farm on East Coxon Road in Brunswick, after the group shifted away from an early idea for a farm-based product and settled on donating organic produce to food pantries and food-access organizations. The farm began on about 1 acre and was long powered by a small core of steady volunteers. In 2021, it was still described as employing four part-time workers and drawing hundreds of volunteers each season.

The numbers show how quickly the operation expanded. By 2019, Growing to Give had already surpassed 30,000 pounds of donated produce. By July 2021, it had passed 50,000 pounds. By August 2024, it had topped 100,000 pounds of donated produce, a milestone described as nearly 83,333 meals. That same year, the farm was distributing 86 varieties of vegetables across seven counties.

Growing to Give became a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit in early 2020, and its own materials now describe a broader mission centered on regenerative land, food, water and community health systems. Even so, the local effect remains rooted in nearby food-security needs, including in Bath, Brunswick, Freeport, Harpswell and Lisbon, with produce also moving through organizations that serve Sagadahoc County and beyond. For Christine Sloan, the board president, the hire keeps volunteerism central while giving the organization a more durable structure to manage its growing workload.