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AUBURN — Wet weather May 6 did not dampen the rainbow of color bursting from three full greenhouses with hanging flower baskets, potted herbs, and vegetable seedlings at Whiting Farm, located at 876 Summer St. Visitors were there celebrating the spring opening of the Auburn farm and the start of gardening season. Representatives of the Good Food Council of Lewiston-Auburn also were present to celebrate the first anniversary of the Lewiston-Auburn Community Food Charter.
The L-A Community Food Charter was launched by the Good Food Council in Spring 2016 as a way to highlight L-A’s community food values and build support for a more sustainable local food system. The food charter is on the Good Food Council website, where community members are encouraged to complete a simple form to endorse the one-page charter and show commitment to improving the local food system.
Good Food Council Chairwoman Karen Bolduc and Coordinator Julia Harper were on hand, along with Maine’s Big Z105.5 FM, to mark the occasion. Bolduc and Harper highlighted five activities of L-A area groups, each an example of “living” the five major food charter principles — food security, local and sustainable agriculture, leadership, good food policy, and working landscapes and community infrastructure
* Food Security — Auburn’s first community garden on Webster Street, made possible by a collaboration between the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, City of Auburn, the National Park Service River Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, the Androscoggin Land Trust, and Auburn residents.
* Local & Sustainable Agriculture — Somali Bantu Community Association for connecting and supporting more than 80 farmers to cultivate agriculture land in the L-A area.
* Leadership — The Center for Wisdom’s Women for their “Peasant Pantry” community meal program, where women in their weekday downtown drop-in center learn how to prepare a healthy subsistence meal from a different culture of the world.
* Good Food Policy — The City of Lewiston for its recent comprehensive plan elevating the importance of local agriculture and listing Community-Supported Agriculture, farmers’ markets, and local food movements as priorities for economic vitality.
* Working Landscapes and Community Infrastructure — R. Belanger & Son’s Farm for its 200 acres of cultivated land in both Lewiston and Auburn, and maintaining a USDA Good Agricultural Practices certified facility, allowing them to be a supplier of “Close to Home” produce.
The first food charter principle is “striving for a food-secure future.” As an example of supporting this, Harper described the efforts of St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, the City of Auburn, and many other partners for a successful collaboration leading to the establishment of Auburn’s first community garden last season.
In its initial year, 21 families and three organizations tended plots in the Webster Street community garden. An end-of-season survey indicated 67 percent of gardeners surveyed reported an increase in household vegetable consumption, 73 percent reported they feel more connected to community and neighbors, and 80 percent reported they have greater confidence in growing their own food.
As a great example of the second food charter principle, “supporting local and sustainable agriculture,” Harper highlighted the Somali Bantu Community Association for connecting and supporting more than 80 Bantu farmers to cultivate agriculture land in the L-A area, including 9.6 acres currently leased at Whiting Farm. The association is a Lewiston-based, non-profit, led by Bantu people, providing mutual aid, education and integration services to its members.
The third food charter principle encourages “enabling leadership by all members of the community;” as an example, Bolduc highlighted the Center for Wisdom’s Women for its Peasant Pantry community meal program. The center is a weekday, drop-in spot at 97 Blake St. in downtown Lewiston, helping women break isolation and build community. Peasant Pantry is a once-monthly prepared basic meal from a different culture of the world.
Each month, the women at the center prepare this meal, learn about the food they are preparing, and the culture whose food they are eating. The prepared meal is open to anyone in the community; people pay what they can afford, and any extra income is given to the team of women preparing the meal.
The fourth principle of the food charter is “elevating good food policy,” and Bolduc recognized the City of Lewiston for its comprehensive plan — Legacy Lewiston — for speaking to the necessity of protecting rural lands from development for use of agriculture. The plan also indicates community supported agriculture, farmers’ markets and local food movements as elements that should be prioritized to create economic vitality.
The Good Food Council is thrilled by this important step in Lewiston’s policy.
The last principle of the food charter is “preserving working landscapes,” or farms, and “development of community infrastructure,” and as an example, Harper recognized R. Belanger & Son’s Farm for continuing a third-generation family farm with 200 acres of cultivated land in both Lewiston and Auburn; it provides jobs supporting 17 families.
It is also an example of supporting successful community infrastructure by maintaining a USDA Good Agricultural Practices certified facility, allowing them to be a supplier of “Close to Home” produce in 10 area Hannaford supermarkets. As such, they are one of the area leaders in farming for wholesale, giving local supermarket shoppers the option to purchase truly local food.
These five examples represent only a small fraction of the good food work being done in the L-A area. “We want to celebrate all of it,” Bolduc remarked. It’s also all part of a statewide movement to build a more resilient Maine food system.”
Those interested in learning more about the food charter are invited to visit the website at goodfood4la.org.
PHOTO CAPTION: Celebrating the spring opening of Whiting Farm and first anniversary of the L-A Community Food Charter are, from left, Kim Finnerty, director of Whiting Farm and Good Food Council L-A member; Klara Tammany, executive director of the Center for Wisdom’s Women; and Julia Harper, coordinator of Good Food Council L-A.
