FREEPORT, Maine — Wolfe’s Neck Farm (WNF) has announced the first-year impact of its 2016 Harvard Pilgrim Foundation Healthy Food Fund grant. The $150,000 grant is distributed over three years and has already helped Wolfe’s Neck Farm’s Teen Agriculture: Growing Farmers, Feeding Maine (Teen Ag) program increase their production by over 45%. The Program grows all of the farm’s fruits and vegetables and distributes this fresh, local produce to area food pantries.
A recent Good Shepherd Food Bank survey revealed that 56% of their clientele throughout Maine confront the choice between buying food and paying for heating in the winter. Traditionally, the winter offerings are heavily focused on canned or packaged offering but, in response, the Wolfe’s Neck Farm’s Teen Ag program constructed a year-round growing infrastructure. Teen Ag harvested 700 pounds of kale, spinach, and carrots for area food pantries from November 2016 through April 2017.
“Thanks to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation’s support, Wolfe’s Neck Farm’s Teen Agriculture has undergone unprecedented growth this year,” says Piper Dumont, WNF’s Education Director. “In addition to year-round growing, we’ve increased our overall production and can better serve our on-site outlets (farm stand, CSA, and our Farm Cafe), while increasing our contributions to local food pantries.”
Harvard Pilgrim Foundation’s Healthy Food Fund supports 26 projects in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, 17 of which are selling healthy local food through Farmers’ Markets, Mobile Markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, and farm stands. A total of 20 are distributing produce through free-to-recipient channels such as gleaning, food banks, community meals, and youth agriculture programs. In total, the amount of healthy, local produce distributed to low-income families in the region increased 87 percent as a result of contributions through these programs; and the amount of produce sold increased 63 percent to 827,000 pounds. The total dollar value of healthy food reaching households in communities across the region as a result of the Healthy Food Fund in 2016 is $2.2 million.
“We are so pleased we can show how relatively small investments in local organizations can measurably improve access to healthy food,” responded Harvard Pilgrim Foundation’s President, Karen Voci. In 2016, more than $1.4 million in grants was distributed to the Foundation’s Healthy Food Fund initiatives within the region, with funds supporting programs that grow, distribute and/or market fresh food for low-income families and communities across the region.
Since its inception in 2012, Wolfe’s Neck Farm’s Teen Ag program has contributed tons of local, nutritious produce to families in need as a participant in Good Shepherd Food Bank’s Mainers Feeding Mainers program, and through partnerships with the Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program in Brunswick, the Bath Area Food Bank, Yarmouth Community Pantry, and Freeport Community Services. They will contribute to the Vineyard Church of Greater Portland and the Westbrook Community Food & Resource Center in 2017. The program also offers Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares at a substantially reduced price for SNAP recipients, and their farm stand accepts EBT cards (formerly Food Stamps). With Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation funds Wolfe’s Neck Farm continues to build infrastructure to grow crops through the winter, raise overall production, and increase availability of fresh fruits and vegetables for our entire community.
About Wolfe’s Neck Farm
Wolfe’s Neck Farm strives to play a leading role in shaping the future of sustainable agriculture by training new farmers, inspiring people to make informed food choices, and facilitating farm-based education and research. This nonprofit educational farm’s 626-acre campus includes forest, pasture lands, four miles of Casco Bay coastline and an award-winning oceanfront campground. The farm’s educational programs also include a summer day camp, school programs, and its new Organic Dairy Farmer Training and Research Program. It hosts annual barn dances and festivals as well as growing vegetables and pasture-raising chickens, and lamb for the local community. Open free to the public year-round, the farm encourages visitors to traverse its miles of hiking trails, meet the livestock, explore the gardens and enjoy the open space. For more information, visit www.wolfesneckfarm.org
About The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation
Created in 1980, The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation supports Harvard Pilgrim’s mission to improve the quality and value of health care for the people and communities we serve. The Harvard Pilgrim Foundation provides the tools, training and leadership to help build healthy communities throughout Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. In 2016, the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation awarded more than $2.4 million in grants to more than 900 nonprofit organizations in the region. Since its inception in 1980, the Foundation has awarded $140 million in funds and resources throughout the four states. For more information, please visit www.harvardpilgrim.org/
—Wolfe’s Neck Farm
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