Regarding Hosting the President
Late last night we received a call from the White House asking if President Donald Trump could visit our family farm during a small, unpublicized stop. Each day we aim to make America a little better by practicing radical hospitality, connecting people together, and to the land through agriculture. We extend that to each of our guests regardless of political persuasion or office. And so when someone asks if they can come to the farm, the answer is ‘yes’. This event was not a rally and we are not endorsing any particular candidate, but we are honored to welcome a sitting president into our home.
October 25, 2020 3:30pm
The President with members of the Treworgy Family - AP Photo Alex Brandon
Regarding Crowds and COVID-19
We share the concerns of many over the size of the gathering, lack of social distancing and mask wearing during the event. We were told this would be a small, unpublicized, surprise, private, photo op which gave us no cause for alarm. Given that information, we accepted the visit, just as we would for any President. We were sworn to secrecy and told that to prevent crowds we could not tell anyone and avoid answering questions from the media. Upon acceptance, the farm was essentially handed over to Secret Service and White House staff for security sweeps and staging the visit. We expected the President to show up unannounced, surprise the few people who happened to be here, and leave with some nice photos of him holding a pumpkin.
Although we maintained secrecy about the event, the location somehow became known. We have had a mask and social distance policy in place since we opened for the season which we enforce to the best of our ability in the interest of the health and safety of our customers, our employees, and our family. We were not aware that this visit would be open to the public without our ability to enforce our policies. All enforcement of the farm was handled by the Secret Service and by the time crowds began to gather our staff was not able to move freely. Not only were we surprised, but the Secret Service and White House personnel were shocked at the number of people arriving as well. If something had changed within the White House or campaign planning for this visit, we were not made aware of it during the process. If we had it our way, the visit would have gone just as we had initially been told: an unannounced photo op with the President and his team.
We are concerned about COVID-19's spread locally and globally, and we are proud that Maine has been a leader on limiting the spread as much as possible. Our mask policy will remain intact for the rest of this season, and - while we hope COVID-19 will be at a point where we won't need a mask policy next year - we will continue to implement policies and protocols as advised by state officials in order to keep our customers, employees, and families safe.
October 27, 2020 11:00am
