This article focuses on the food environment and food shopping habits of lower-income residents in rural Maine. Focus groups were conducted with lower-income parents of children enrolled in Medicaid/State Children’s Health Insurance Program in Maine to ask them about their food shopping habits, the barriers they faced when trying to obtain food, places where they get their food, and their perception of healthy food. Cost, travel distance and food quality were factors that influenced efforts to get food. Parents described shopping habits that involved coupons and sales; traveling distances of up to 80 miles to purchase good quality, affordable foods; supplementing purchased food with food that is harvested, hunted and bartered; and using larger freezers to store bulk items for survival in ‘tough’ times.