Every year, the Sharing the Harvest community farm in Dartmouth hosts a fundraising dinner made from food grown on the Gulf Road property — but this year’s event was a bit different.

The fundraiser normally includes a farm-to-table dinner with a silent auction and live music. But on Friday evening, people flocked to the Dartmouth YMCA to pick up their dinners to go.

“So many other entities had to cancel their summer outings,” board member Susan Adamowski said. “But we got together and were just committed to finding a way to make this work.”

This year’s harvest celebration featured James Beard Award-winning chefs Emily Luchetti and Jody Adams along with Dartmouth’s own Little Moss head chef and co-owner Lisa Lofberg, among other industry names providing gourmet dinners including hors d’oeuvres, two courses, and dessert.

“I was helping put together some of the food and I couldn’t help but be a little distracted by how good it smelled,” Adamowski laughed.

Much of the produce used in the meals came right from the reason for the fundraiser: the YMCA’s Sharing the Harvest Farm.

The farm is a non-profit, volunteer-driven farm that aims to provide food security and agricultural education to the south coast. Since its inception in 2006, it has donated nearly 600,000 pounds of produce to those in need across the region.

Farm Director Ahsley Brister said that this year alone, the farm is on track to donate 65,000 pounds, with 8,000 in June alone.

“Doing this is more important than ever,” she said. “So many people are experiencing food insecurity during this time, so it’s important we continue to help them out.”

Usually, the farm relies on a large number of volunteers and kids to help with the harvests, but Covid restrictions have reduced that to a small core of seasonal staff. 

But Brister said the core group has been able to manage the increased workload, saying that the smaller team has really had to reexamine its efficiency to make sure the harvests continue at a steady pace.

“[The farm] is definitely a smaller and quieter farm than normal,” she added.

Attendees said they were just happy to support the cause.

Dartmouth resident Sandra Sacco said providing food security is especially important during this time, and that supporting the YMCA and its farm was a no-brainer.

“It’s such a good cause, plus we get a gourmet meal,” she said. “This was easily a win-win.”

According to Executive Director for the Dartmouth YMCA Maxine Hebert, more than 100 tickets were sold.

“We actually sold the same amount of tickets if we were doing the normal event,” she added. “And everybody who drove through was thanking us, which I couldn’t believe.”

“We’re still here and we’re still trying to help,” Hebert added. “No pandemic will stop that.”