Grants help agriculture programs reap success

PITTSFIELD – Eleven Harvest Fund grants provided this spring by Maine Initiatives of Augusta, a public foundation geared toward changing public policy and solving social problems, had two goals – to blend sustainable agriculture and to work towards ending hunger in Maine.

As harvest time approaches, the grant projects are being called an overwhelming success.

Debra Felder, Maine Initiatives executive director, said The Harvest Fund “is a fund [whose] time has come. If we don’t start focusing on our rural heritage, it will be lost.

“Our goal is to literally and figuratively plant a lot of seeds and then hope the communities will look at the value of continuing these projects on their own.”

The goal of the agricultural aspect of MI is to assist projects that are meant to last. Felder said that of the six projects funded in the fall of 2000, two-thirds or more have continued on their own with outside funding.

“Our issue is to provide the start-up funding and hope that other funders come behind us,” she said. “Key to what we are doing is encouraging communities to take unused land and make it productive, turning it into farmland that will create food.”

From Union to Brooklin to Saco to Fort Fairfield, the 11 projects funded this spring focused on a wide and varied range of agricultural issues.

In Fort Fairfield, students grow organic grain, bake and market bread and pastries to areas businesses. The bakery opened last year and involves 55 students.

The Giving Garden in Saco serves as recreational therapy for mentally and physically handicapped adults who in turn donate their produce to local food pantries.

Will Bonsall of the Scatterseed Project of Farmington, one of those groups funded this spring, said the grant was vital to the Scatterseed work. For more than 20 years, Scatterseed has kept rare and endangered food plant varieties alive and in circulation. It now offers 2,000 varieties of 50 different plants.

“We are currently trying to rescue some 1,000 plant varieties that are in real peril,” said Bonsall. “Basically, The Harvest Fund grant enabled us to keep doing what we do.”

Shanna Hanson oversees the garden at Northeast Occupational Exchange in Newport, which provides mental health counseling services, rehabilitation and substance abuse counseling. The garden project was “bedraggled and disorganized” last year, Hanson said Tuesday, but with The Harvest Fund grant, two of NOE’s clients were paid a stipend to put the program in order.

As a result, six staff members have participated – compared to one last year – and 30 clients have worked in the garden – compared to five last year.

“This has been a great success,” said Hanson. The produce grown is shared by garden workers, the Newport Food Bank and a soup kitchen in Palmyra.

“We have probably increased our harvest three times over,” said Hanson, “and there is still a lot more to come.” Hanson said a part of the process has included creation of an irrigation system for next year.

One of the members of The Harvest Fund Grants Committee is John Piotti, director of the Maine Farms Project of Coastal Enterprises Inc. He said The Harvest Fund grants are small, $500 to $2,000, but for many projects, that amount is “just enough to grease the skids and make a project real.”

“For some of these grass roots groups, that money can make a huge difference,” said Piotti.

He said the quality and innovation of the grant applications was amazing. “We had hard decisions to make when selecting the final grant recipients,” he said.

“There are a lot of barriers in farming,” said Piotti. “Often, just a little bit of money can go a long way toward promoting new ideas or strategies.”