Partnerships
Waban’s Lifeworks Program of Sanford, Maine (www.waban.org/waban-adult-programs.aspx) allows 6-8 challenged adults to join our “Companion Planters” program, learning to grow food sustainably from “seed to seed”, that is from sowing to harvest.
Creative Trails of Portland, Maine (www.creativetrails.org) a program of Support Solutions, works with us with two of their groups. ‘Cultivate’ help us with all aspects of farming and maintain a small plot, growing food for a Portland food pantry, the Root Cellar. They deliver the food the grow the following day. The other group, Trails, maintains the woods trail and help with large landscaping projects.
The University of Southern Maine (usm.maine.edu/community) partners with us in their service learning component. Some students volunteer for a few hours, getting a brief introduction to sustainable organic gardening, while others are interns developing for us a specific project. Large groups also come from the University to help us achieve our food security goals.
The Cooperative Extension in Cumberland County (extension.umaine.edu/cumberland/) supports our grants and some of the Master Gardeners earn their volunteer hours working at the farm. They primarily help us with permaculture design and implementation.
Natural Resources Conservation Service (www.me.nrcs.usda.gov) help us through grants and their expertise to better conserve our land. Their assistance allowed us to improve drainage in a large, wet field; created a grassland waterway to stop erosion on the edge of our large field; created a drainage/culvert directing waterflow into a natural ravine; and built our composting facilty.