Warren — Hatchet Cove Farm has donated a load of vegetables to Cultivating Community to help feed the immigrants at the Expo Center in Portland.

"I feel like this is quite relevant to a lot of the conversation that was happening in the State House last week, and the work that we are doing as a farm," said state Rep. William Pluecker, independent of Warren, who operates the farm with his family.

"We are so proud to have had the chance to do our part to support the folks who have come to our state to find shelter from the storm of warring countries and economic despair," Pluecker said.

"Within our community, we know how to support and care for one another. We were raised with the moral character to know wrong from right, and when a neighbor calls for help, we show up. Sometimes our neighbors come from farther away than just down the street," he said.

"The act of sharing food, breaking bread together, brings people together. As food producers in our community we have intimate experience with this fact. As a community, as Mainers, we do not pass by people in need. As farmers we find ourselves blessed to have the opportunity to come to the stranger at our door," he said.

The Portland Press Herald reported June 20 that in recent weeks Portland has taken in 292 asylum seekers – 87 families – who have traveled by bus from the southern U.S. border. Most are fleeing political, military and economic problems in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Portland converted the Portland Expo sports arena into an emergency shelter amid the influx.

While the city has registered 259 African asylum seekers since June 9, roughly 223 were at the temporary shelter as of June 18.