December 2023 News - Cultivating Community

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Cultivating Community’s
Year in Review

We believe in food justice for all. Our work is rooted in taking action to meet the urgent need for fresh, culturally important food and access to land while creating lasting systems for change.

As we close the year and plan for next season, we are excited to share highlights from our core Cultivating Community programs. Our work is made possible because of trust, partnership, and support from you and our surrounding community. Thank you for growing with us.

Wishing you peace, joy, and lots of sharing food this season!
– Cultivating Community’s Staff & Board

Make an End of Year Donation

Teen Leadership

Our youth-led program focuses on local food issues and fosters leadership skills while providing collaborative and joyful experiences. No matter the season, you’ll find our staff meeting our 4 cohorts of teens where they’re at, growing and making food together, and sharing knowledge.

We welcomed 48 Portland Public High School students for paid internship opportunities.
Over 90% of the students were new immigrants.
Youth interns delivered over 400 bags of local vegetables and 250 freshly prepared hot meals to East Bayside neighbors.

Urban Agriculture

Cultivating Community celebrated our 10th year of managing the City of Portland’s Community Gardens and our small staff did an exceptional job of building new systems and working with the City and Volunteer Garden Coordinators to tackle big garden projects. Looking ahead to Spring, we are excited to once again offer educational workshops on gardening, fruit tree care, and soil management as well as community volunteer days.

More than 450 gardeners grew together on public land, over 100 of which were new growers from the waitlist.
Grew our team to support the diversity, language needs, and accessibility of the gardens.
532 volunteers contributed more than 2,750 hours to caring for the gardens. Thank you, Garden Community!

Community Farms & Food Access

Since adopting the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project over 15 years ago, our program has evolved into two community farms, each providing food access, education, and affordable land for new immigrant farmers and gardeners to grow and share foods that are important to their culture and health.

With our support, six farmer training graduates grew over $280,000 in fresh culturally important crops. This included $60,000 of vegetables delivered directly to local food pantries in partnership with Mainers Feeding Mainers.
Multilingual farmstands doubled over $83,000 in SNAP and WIC purchases and expanded our outreach with our community partners.
Hurricane Valley Farm provided land access and support to 55 new immigrant families with 30×100’+ plots, and many reported sharing food with 20 or more people throughout the season.

School Partnerships

We work with local schools, teachers, and limited-resource families to provide students with inspiring hands-on gardening and fun food experiences. Students are also encouraged to try and enjoy healthy local foods while being given autonomy over food choices. Going forward, we will continue to advocate for vibrant school garden programs, access to culturally important foods, and support curriculum development for outdoor learning.

43% of Maine students rely on school meals every day, making this work an investment in their future.
We worked with community partners and food service staff to support integrating more locally grown and culturally important foods into school meals.
We partner with Portland Public Schools to support the Environmental Literacy teachers to ensure that every one of the 3,116 elementary students has garden space and outdoor learning opportunities.

Click here to Donate!

Join and help keep our programs strong now and for many seasons to come by donating today. We also welcome gifts of time and in-kind support of garden and farm supplies. If you would like to talk with someone about making a donation please call 207-747-7836.

P.S. Cultivating Community’s Boyd Street office and farms will be closed from December 23 – January 1 for our staff to rest and spend time with loved ones. Please reach out to info@cultivatingcommunity or 207-747-7836 if you have any questions or need assistance.

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Our mailing address:
P.O. Box 3792, Portland ME 04104
(207) 761-GROW

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