What is New

Cultivating Community is making local headlines, thanks to the USDA's Community Food Projects grant. 

Read more: Cultivating Community is front page news!

Students create lunch from seed to spoon"What's in this soup?" Alfred Jacob, Cultivating Community’s Program Educator, asked a group of excited Portland, ME kindergarteners. “Carrots!” they replied. "And, potatoes, onions and beets!"“Who grew them?" "We did!" For many children, learning where a potato grows, how a strawberry flowers, or how a garden-fresh purple carrot tastes is a new experience.· And, for students at a city school where approximately 75% of the students depend on school meals for much of their daily nutritional needs, the availability of fresh, healthy produce at school is vital to keeping them healthy.

This fall, 11 classrooms of K-4 students at East End Community School in Portland, ME read the fable Stone Soup, a story about a hungry village with nothing to eat and only a big empty pot and a single stone.

Read more: Growing better eaters

PORTLAND, Maine
(NEWS CENTER Caroline Cornish, Reporter Kristin DiCara, Multimedia Producer ) -- This summer, a handful of farmers markets are offering a new benefit to people who receive food assistance through the WIC and SNAP programs.  SNAP used to be known as food stamps.

People using their EBT benefit cards can get double the produce for their money. The hope is to help low income Mainers eat healthier food, while supporting local farmers. A lot of farmers markets do not allow people to use EBT cards at all, and many that do are not participating in the double coupon program. You can find a list of participating markets by clicking here.