August 2025 | Issue #167

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DEADLINE: 4pm on August 30, 2025

Thanks to funding from the Sewall Foundation and Real Maine, a program of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, the Maine School Garden Network is proud to continue their School Garden Caretakers grant program in 2025 by offering five (5) $2,000 grants to pay School Garden Caretakers in Maine!

To qualify for a grant, schools must have:

• a school garden program (of any size, capacity, involvement level)

• a new or updated registry listing in the MSGN Garden Directory.



• documented support by a school colleague for the School Garden program in the form of a letter.

• a person who is currently or able to be the School Garden Caretaker (having a person in place is REQUIRED)

Join Maine Nutrition Council at the 2025 Annual Conference as they explore the dynamic and evolving world of food, nutrition, and sustainability. This year’s theme, Seeds of Change: Exploring New Landscapes of Food, will bring together a diverse community of educators, healthcare professionals, foodservice leaders, researchers, policymakers, and advocates working across the nutrition spectrum. Engage in thought-provoking conversations, taste local innovations, and explore the cultural, environmental, and nutritional shifts shaping what we eat.

MNC is honored to welcome keynote speaker June Jo Lee, a renowned food ethnographer based in San Francisco. In her keynote address, “Food is Life’s First Lesson,” June Jo will unpack the deeper meanings behind our food choices and examine how “modern hungers” influence what and how we eat. She’ll decode Gen Z’s spicy, rich, and complex relationship with food and challenge us to consider how we might guide young eaters through life’s first lesson: learning what’s good to eat.

There will be a choice of two 1-hour breakout sessions. Including:

• Readers to Eaters: Nourishing One Eater at a Time, with June Jo Lee & Philip Lee.
• Good Grains on the Go, with Heather Kerner, Founder & CEO of The Good Crust.
• Tasting the Tides: Student Innovation at the Nexus of Nutrition and Ocean Health, with the UNE Kelp Bar Innovation Team.
• Understanding Ultraprocessed Foods, with Dr. Mary Ellen Camire, Professor, UMaine Food Science & Human Nutrition.

In the afternoon, attendees will rotate through a curated series of hands-on tasting experiences featuring innovative local food entrepreneurs. Including:

• Minimize Waste, Maximize Flavor: How an Ancient Fish Sauce Can Help Solve Modern Problems, presented by Liam Fisher, Founder of Maine Garum Company.
• Edible Insects from Entosense, presented by Bill Broadbent, Co-Founder of Entosense.
• Tide to Table: How and Why to Include Sea Vegetables in a Healthy Diet, presented by Kara Ibarguen, Maine Coast Sea Vegetables.

Maine Agriculture in the Classroom is pleased to announce that the Classroom Integrated Pest Management Program will be continued during the 2025-2026 school year! 

Through this program, retired educator Bernie Welch has shared his passion for low-impact pest control and awareness about good bugs in school gardens and the environment in general. K-12 students are treated to an in-depth look at the insects and habitats right on their school grounds, and each participating school receives a kit full of tools to use plus access to a tremendous network of resources.

This program encourages students to explore and observe garden insects using simple capture and identify devices, sketch insects in journals, and attempt to identify them using provided insect garden keys. Students discuss findings and gain an understanding of how such data can be useful for the school garden. More importantly, students take these new skills home to use in their own garden! Although there is a focus on scientific method, garden record keeping, and gaining insect habitat knowledge, there are also plenty of healthy garden conversations that ensue along the way, with healthy food and local food conversations an important part of the mix.

MAITC is now accepting registrations for up to 7 K-12 schools for fall 2025 and spring 2026. Most fall visits will happen in the month of October. 

REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 1st! Sign up by emailing maitc@maine.gov.

Grades K-2



The Amazing Honey Bee

Students investigate the three types of honey bees in a colony, identify their roles, and recognize honey bees as part of a community that works together.

Grades 3-5

A Pollination Simulation

Students identify the parts of a honey bee, the stages of its life cycle, and its role in pollination.

Grades 6-8

Mind Your Own Beeswax

Through project-based learning, students solve the problem of excess beeswax, a byproduct of honey bees, by developing a useful beeswax product and marketing their product to be sold in a local boutique or farmers market.

Looking for more? Explore the Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix HERE

Don't forget that all SIX of our Agriculture for ME books are available to read online!

Funding from this plate impacts up to 200,000 students annually with lessons, materials, volunteers and teacher training. Additionally, up to $60K is distributed annually in grants to schools, FFA, 4-H and other Non-profit programs for Ag education initiatives by the Maine Agriculture in the Classroom Council.

Learn more about the Ag plate here.

The MAITC Association is organizing a fundraiser for materials and teacher scholarships this year. Hats and T-shirts with the MAITC logo and a picture of the agriculture specialty license plate are available to order for a small donation. 

For more information contact Nancy Wright at dnwright191@gmail.com

Our Mission Statement

"To promote the understanding of agriculture and natural resources among students, educators, and the general public"  

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