2013 Regional Food Systems Grants
Food Systems
Good Shepherd Food-Bank$40,000
To form "buy local" wholesale purchase partnerships with Maine farmers and to expand direct farm-to-pantry food distributions to help eliminate hunger and poor diets for needy Maine families.
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association$60,000
To build the momentum for expanding Maine-grown food, assist food growers and processers to become profitable, look for ways to access larger markets (institutions and urban markets) and identify policy barriers that hinder farmers in accessing institutional customers.
New England Farmers Union Education Foundation$75,000
To scale up production and marketing of regionally produced food by educating farmers and fishermen about cooperative business models, providing them with technical assistance, and eliminating legal barriers that new farm and fishing cooperatives face.
University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service$25,000
To carry out an eighteen-month participatory planning process for the future of Maine’s food system, and to connect that process with those underway in the other five New England states and for the region as a whole.
Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund$60,000
To promote job creation, greater economic output, and increased access for Vermont and regional consumers to healthy, fresh food over the next ten years.