programs
2018 Education Grants Funded
Ag Leadership
Ashland District School - Janet Perry, Ashland
Ashland FFA continues to learn about agriculture outside the traditional classroom setting by taking students to Eastern States Exposition, “The Big E & Beyond” in West Springfield, MA, and are also considering the possibility of attending the 2018 FFA National Convention in Indianapolis, IN. At the “Big E,” students compete in Career Development Events with FFA members from northeastern states, and will also tour agricultural businesses and educational sites.
Maine FFA Association - Doug Robertson, Augusta
Since 1930, Maine has helped thousands of students to advance as leaders in agriculture. This year's project supports October 218 participation by Maine's two student officer delegates in the National FFA Convention, the culmination of the leadership continuum that prepares them to serve over 500 Maine FFA members.
Ag Awareness $1,000
Amanda C. Rowe Elementary School - Sarah Swenson, Portland
Through this project, Pre-K students, seventy percent who are economically disadvantaged, will be provided with visits to local farms and businesses where they will learn about local agricultural products and how they are produced. Upon returning to the classroom, students will participate in a variety of cooking experiences to produce healthy recipes featuring Maine agricultural items such as apples, pumpkins, milk, eggs, etc.
Saccarappa School - Celina Marden, Westbrook
Saccarappa School is a suburban, Title One school with a large number of high poverty and English language learners. There are approximately 320 Kindergarten - Grade 4 students. This grant will specifically target the four kindergarten classes linking literacy, science, and social studies curriculums and agriculture. Saccarappa School will use funds from this grant to provide multiple copies of books covering a wide variety of topics relating to agriculture. Both fiction and non-fiction emergent readers, reading books, classroom read alouds, and guided reading lesson books will be purchased.
Saccarappa Elementary School - Cheryl Juniewicz, Westbrook
The grant money will be used for three agricultural field trips. The field trips will help students realize that there is beauty in nature when they are off their devices. They will also help students understand how food is grown, how the seasons work, and how a plant develops.
Maine School Garden Network - Erika Verrier, Augusta
Maine School Garden Network's Summer Success Garden Tour pilot year will be a weekend of exploration based in six educational gardens in Southern Maine. Funding from MAITC will provide lodging for all registered attendees, as well as scholarships for some, making the event accessible to educators statewide.
Dunn School SAD 15 - Kelly Burgess, New Gloucester
This project will offer a variety of local field trips and visitors by the season. The 90 Pre-K students will be given the opportunities to be up close and personal as they learn about farming and aquaculture and the wide range of foods and fibers that they provide. The classrooms will expand on these experiences across the curriculum and start a foundation of agricultural literacy for these young students.
Ag Awareness $3,000
ReTreeUS - Richard Hodges, Durham
ReTreeUS maintains educational orchards in 30 public schools in Maine. Funding will enable us to improve current orchards while developing lessons that will be aligned to learning standards, enabling teachers to use the orchards more consistently as outdoor classrooms. These efforts will greatly increase the positive impacts of the program.
Leavitt Area High School - Marcia Martin, Turner
“Food and Fiber in Our Community” will teach students about area food and fiber farms by educating them through hands on learning, farm tours, and projects designed to raise agricultural awareness and to provide positive educational experiences for teens.
Knox-Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District - Rebecca Jacobs, Rockport
Fourth grade students in Rockland and Warren will engage in hands-on agricultural lessons in the classroom each month with Farmer Cheryl. Field trips to the farm in September and June will get students excited and then round out their year-long experience.
MSAD 51 Greely High School - Steven GH Schaefer, Cumberland
Greely High School's Alternative Education Program will lead the community in demonstrating how food can be raised locally and sustainably. The proposal is to create a working aquaponics program where fish, plants, and water interact symbiotically. Students will develop an understanding of biological functions while engaging in producing nutritious food.
Maine Region 10 Technical High School - Tim Dean, Brunswick
Funding will be used to enhance the existing Maine Region 10 Technical High School Culinary Arts program through educational field trips to focus on local food procurement practices to increase the usage of Maine grown, processed, and produced foods in their Region Ten Cafe and in the students' future careers.
Maine Association of Family & Consumer Science - Leslie Forstadt, York
In partnership with Maine Association Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Maine Cooperative Extension 4-H developed lessons for middle and high school students about agricultural and food system careers. “Growing Vocational Aspirations with Growing Maine” uses video, exploration, and writing for student engagement in classroom and informal settings.
Regional School Unit 22 - Brittany Layman, Hampden
We have all heard of farm to table and maybe even know about the concept, “lunch and learns.” Have we ever thought about combining the two ideas at the Pre-K level? Regional School Unit 22 is set to do that with an innovative program called “Farm to Pre-K: Exploring Local Foods with Lunch and Learns.” Students will be able to eat a family style meal or snack that is prepared using fresh local ingredients. While they enjoy their meals they will learn what it takes to grow the produce that makes their meals healthy and beautiful.
The Morris Farm Trust - Lisa Packard, Wiscasset
Funding for this project will increase students' knowledge and connection to foods grown in Maine by bringing locally-grown ingredients, safe and effective kitchen tools, and instruction from an experienced farm educator to 325 students in grades K-5 at two public schools in Lincoln County.
Maine Discovery Museum - Anne Langston Bowden, Bangor
The SEA FARM EXPLORER PROGRAM is a mobile program featuring hands-on lessons about locally farmed seafood. The program is led by a farmer-educator, and aims to educate students of all ages about loca, farmed seafood, and to spark curiosity in science, seafood, and ocean stewardship.
School Garden and Greenhouse
Glenn Stratton Learning Center - Langston Ware, Hinckley
The “GSLC School Community Garden” will be developed and maintained by the students of the Glenn Stratton Learning Center. Throughout the 2018-2019 school year, Glenn Stratton Learning Center staff will teach skills through educational curricula that will empower students to take pride in their school community through developing different gardening skills and themes that they can carry over into their home and future educational endeavors.
Edna Drinkwater School - Abby Plummer, Northport
Over 18 years, the Drinkwater School garden has grown and developed, including the recent addition of a dome greenhouse and doubling of the outdoor gardens. The school seeks funding to ensure the program's sustainability by installing a solar panel on the greenhouse, purchasing tools, and supporting the garden coordinator position.
Albert S. Hall School - Gi Reed, Waterville
Gardening and growing food are soothing to a child's soul, especially if that soul has experienced trauma. Funding will expand the gardening program to include a sensory garden area and to provide more in depth gardening experiences and cooking experiences to children who have experienced trauma in their lives.
Williams Elementary School - Melanie Smith, Oakland
Williams Elementary School's “Beginning Our Garden Journey” Project is designed to provide hands-on learning for students as they bridge the gardening gap from primary to middle school. Creating a tower garden and outdoor raised beds garden will teach students about eating locally grown foods from seed to table.
Saccarappa School - Guyla Woodbrey, Westbrook
Saccarappa Elementary School, located in Westbrook, Maine represents the district's rapidly changing and increasingly diverse student population and provides an exciting opportunity for garden-based education both during and after school. Saccarappa will use the grant funds to purchase additional fencing to complete phase two of the fencing project.
Incredible Edible Milbridge, a project of the Women's Health Resource Library - Pam Dyer Stewart, Milbridge
To expand the current Incredible Edible Milbridge education initiatives by developing a more comprehensive curriculum that is adaptable to different age ranges at the Milbridge Elementary School. Expanded curriculum will focus on supporting classroom learning objective through garden-based education and peer mentorship.
MSAD 15 Burchard A. Dunn School - Dana Welch, New Gloucester
Burchard A. Dunn School is planning an inside out garden for the 2018-2019 school year. The inside out garden consists of a traditional school garden along with a hydroponic tower garden and the continuation of seed starting indoors.
Healthy Acadia - Regina Grabrovac, Machias
A summer program will be operated working with teens ages 13-16. The program will nourishe and engage their interests, instill a sense of giving back to the community, and teach valuable lifetime skills related to farming and food systems in general.