MEFTI catalyzes a social impact network focused on farm to institution in Maine to build a healthy and sustainable regional food system.

MEFTI August 2023 Newsletter

Farmer - Processor - Distributor - Institution

Network Updates

Food Processing Work Group

September Meeting:

Forward Contracting

Do you know about Forward Contracting? This is when growers or harvesters and others from the food chain receive funding for their work from the end buyer before the growing starts. Come learn more from a panel of folks using this model and collectively brainstorm ways to integrate it into your work! Sept 12, 11-12:30 via ZOOM (email mainefoodconvergence@gmail.com for the link)

The Processing Work Group is part the Maine Food Convergence and led by MEFTI. It also serves as an advisory committee for The Maine Marinara Collaborative. This group provides a space to share learnings and develop partnerships so lessons learned can be shared across Maine and the region.

Are you interested in joining?

Contact:

mainefoodconvergence@gmail.com

Food Policy Workgroup

The Maine Food Policy Work Group is working on a few projects this fall, now that this spring’s Legislative Session has wound down. These include creating a Report on Bills presented during the session. This Report will look at Bills that passed, failed, and those have been carried over to the next Session.

The Lead Team is also initiating a Work Group development process aimed at a collaborative process for setting food policy priorities. A series of meetings are being organized to work on this. The Policy Work Group grew out of MEFTI organizing. MEFTI continues to be one of the key partners as this collaborative process unfolds.

Maine Marinara Collaborative

What MMC Does:

Forward contracts so partners get paid sooner
Investments in Maine processor capacity to handle raw ingredients
More Maine food in school and institutional meals
Investments to move BIPOC farms to scale

Project Updates

A team of youth from the Isuken Cooperative have started a marketing project that will promote their food truck and the Maine Marinara Collaborative. Their aim is to use social media as a platform for story sharing.
The youth team and MMC partners are planning for upcoming school lunch events with Isuken Food Truck and MMC at four schools this fall. Sambusas and cheese dippers with Maine Marinara are on the menu!
Our project manager is working on coordinating a delivery of 600 pounds of zucchini to Maine Food Group for processing in the next few weeks. Tomatoes will no doubt be shortly behind that!
The MMC team had the chance to get out and visit three of our partner farms earlier this month-- Isuken, New Roots, and Liberation Farms. It was great to connect with the people growing our crops, and we can happily report that all water tests came back clean.

Field Trip to Mountain View Correctional

Earlier this month members from Farm to Institution New England, Maine Farm to Institution Network, and representatives from the New Hampshire and Vermont Departments of Corrections had the chance to visit Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine.

MEFTI leader and Mountain View Food Service Manager Mark McBrine led the group through a tour of the facility's culinary training kitchen and service kitchen, highlighting their strategies for procuring local food. From connecting with a local meat processor to save product for hamburger, to purchasing the imperfectly shaped cheese block ends from Pineland Farms, the program has been able to source local ingredients at very fair prices. At any given time, Mountain View is serving 30%-50% local food.

The tour also went through the five-acre organic vegetable farm that supplies food for the kitchen. Although the rain has made growing extra challenging this season, the gardens still appeared to be quite productive.

The farm-to-prison work that's been done in Maine is truly impressive, and serves as a model for other states.

Community Events and Opportunities

New England Feeding New England '30% by 2030' Report Webinar

September 26, 1-2:30pm

The New England Food System Planners Partnership will review the report findings, hear from members of our research team, and break out into small groups to discuss possible next steps towards our regional goal of 30% by 2030.

Zoom Link for Webinar

2024 Maine Agricultural Trades Show participation interest form now open

Are you an agricultural business, producer group, organization, or service provider who would like to participate in the 2024 Maine Agricultural Trades Show? Would you like to give a talk, host a meeting, rent space, offer business advising, have a booth, or sponsor a portion of the 2024 Maine Agricultural Trades Show? Apply before 9/10 to be eligible for early consideration.

Complete the Interest Form

New England Farm to Early Childhood Project Webinar

September 19, 1-2:30pm

Farm to Early Childhood Community of Practice members, researcher Hannah Leighton, and project lead Dana Stevens will give an overview of the New England Farm to Early Childhood Project, take a deeper dive into the recommendations and opportunities identified in the ecosystem assessment, and lead a group strategizing session about how to move this work forward in New England.

Seeds of Change Film Screenings

September 22, 6:30pm

Maine Outdoor Film Festival Selects Tour

The Waldo Theater, Waldoboro, ME

Filmed over the course of two-years, Seeds of Change chronicles the intersecting stories of lifelong farmer Mark McBrine and several incarcerated men as they grow their own food from a 5-acre prison garden unlike any other.

Purchase Tickets Here

Maine Farm to Institution Network is supported by the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation

Healthy Communities of the Capital Area

is the fiscal and staffing home to the Maine Farm to Institution Network