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Old Town pursues state resiliency grant to expand community gardens and fight food insecurity
Summary
Economic & Community Development Director EJ Roach told the council the city will apply for a state Community Resilience grant (deadline end of December) to expand community gardens, partner with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, hire interns and share produce with local food pantries; items on the state's approved list require no local match.
Economic & Community Development Director EJ Roach told the Old Town City Council on Dec. 2 that the city will apply for a state Community Resilience grant to expand its community garden program and support food-security work.
Roach said Old Town became a Community Resilience Partner in December 2022 and has been prioritizing climate-resiliency and food-security initiatives. "We're looking to apply for some money to help with kind of food insecurity — establishing more of our community garden program to help kind of meet some of those goals," Roach said. He said Cooperative Extension at the University of Maine will take a lead role.
The grant application is due at the end of December. Roach said items that appear on the state's approved list would require no local match; projects not on that list would carry a 10% local match. He noted the city has already completed related items that strengthen the application, including installing charging stations and operating electric vehicles in the municipal fleet.
Roach described program elements the city intends to pursue if funded: expanding garden beds behind the fire station and on Perkins, using additional land on Benck Road at Witter Farm (University property), hiring interns through local schools to support planting and operations, and potentially adding staff. He said produce grown through the program would be distributed to food pantries to increase local access to fresh food and reduce travel distances for residents.
Roach asked the council to provide letters of support as the application is finalized; some grant opportunities may require a formal council vote to authorize matching funds or agreements. He said the city will return with final grant wording and additional details at a later meeting and that the funding opportunity recurs quarterly if the application is not successful.
Next steps: staff will circulate suggested grant language, seek letters of support from partners, and bring required authorizations to council if the grant advances beyond the application stage.
