Now for our Northern Maine Seafood Hero: Melanie Lagasse!

Melanie often drives the 660-mile, 11-hour round trip from Fort Kent to Portland and back again to pick up and deliver local fish to Northern Maine schools.

Connecting the coast to The County

There's no question in our minds that Melanie Lagasse is the heroic kind of Food Services Director that goes the extra mile (quite literally), gets creative, and prioritizes nothing but the best for her students and community. Fort Kent may be over 300 miles away from Portland (where almost all of Maine's groundfish is landed) but that doesn't stop Melanie from making sure the students of Aroostook County get to eat local, freshly-landed Gulf of Maine fish, even if she has to drive there herself. Here are few of the ways this Seafood Hero has impressed us:

• When free fish is available for Maine's schools via our Fishermen Feeding Mainers program, Melanie doesn't hesitate to drive the 660-mile, 11-hour round trip from Fort Kent to Portland and back again to pick up fresh fish for the three school districts she serves as well as for her neighboring schools in Presque Isle.

  
  

  

  
  

• Because of this dedication to delivering local food to her students no matter the distance, the students of Melanie's three districts have received and eaten 4,030# of local fish in their cafeterias since 2021.

• This spring, Melanie hosted a training at Madawaska Elementary for school nutrition staff during which they crafted the ultimate Maine Fishwich, combining a Graffam Bros fishcake made with Maine flounder and a Good Crust roll made with Maine Grains flour. As we almost always see, the majority of students either "liked" or "loved" the fishwich (see the enthusiastic thumbs up below).

Melanie has worked in school food service for more than 16 years and is a tireless advocate for sourcing local foods for her schools and supporting the food producers in her community. She even testified in support of allowing value-added Maine food products to be eligible for reimbursement through Maine's Local Foods Fund. Because of her hard work, passion, and advocacy, Maine schools can now purchase and serve products like the Graffam Bros Maine Flounder Fishcakes (served above) and be reimbursed for 50% of that purchase. Thank you, Melanie, for being a force for good in Maine schools!