Our Work
Maine Immigrant Greens Collective (MIGC
The Maine Immigrant Green Collaborative, is led by Maine Farm & Sea Cooperative, Farms for Food Equity, and Wayside Food Programs. It was established with a pilot project grant provided by the Elmina Sewall Foundation in 2022 to address a specific concern articulated by Maine’s immigrant community in Southern Maine regarding access to healthy, hearty nutritious greens in the emergency food system.
More Information:
Schools
The Maine Farm and Sea Cooperative is thankful to have a thriving partnership with the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation. Through their Healthy People Healthy Places program, MFSC has been able to further the impact of our Farm to Institution work. For 2020-2021, the focus is K-12 and higher educational institutions. Our goal is to identify long term, sustainable opportunities in these areas:
-
Staff Engagement and Training
-
Local Food Systems Knowledge
-
Increasing local food procurement
Through strategic surveying, diving into purchasing habits, and working closely with staff, we are working with each institution to develop specific-to-them goals and metrics.
More Information:
Local Foods Resources for Schools
Hospitals
We educate and support many hospital food service operations in Maine to be key community leaders when it comes to integrating healthy local food. Our clients stretch from the southern regions of the state all the way up to Fort Kent and Caribou. Local nutritious food is paramount to healthy outcomes when coupled with best food handling practices to ensure the hospital's compliance with regulations and health safety standards for both patients and customers.
Local Food Promotional Events
BIKE MAINE:
Since 2016, Maine Farm and Sea Cooperative has been a proud partner of Bicycle Coalition of Maine’s annual event BikeMaine. BikeMaine, which features a different region of the state of Maine every year, was founded to promote Maine as a bicycling destination and to use cycling as an economic development tool for local communities. Proceeds from the event support BikeMaine host communities and the Bicycle Coalition of Maine’s cycling and pedestrian initiatives.
Maine Farm and Sea Cooperative brings in-depth knowledge of food operations, logistics, food safety, and operations to BikeMaine. We work with each town to create unique local and place based meals in every host community over the course of the week long event. Taking care to ensure proper nutrition for such an athletic event, we take pride in the excellent feedback we receive from participants on the quality and amount of food available.
In 2019, over 74% of food was local for breakfast and dinner, and over 58% of food was local for lunch.
More Information:
MFSC CEO Dave Seddon talks food at BikeMaine 2019
FEEDING 5000 PORTLAND
Through a collaborative effort with the City of Portland, Midcoast Hunger Initiative, Healthy Acadia, and experts from all fields of the food system, we contributed to the effort by menu planning, site design, and leading a team of chefs and volunteers to serve 5,000 people.
More Information:
University of Maine Systems
in 2015, the University of Maine system released a request for proposals for their dining services. Seeking to find new ways to provide large scale dining operations that were still rooted in community, equity, and local agriculture, the cooperative was born. After becoming a finalist, the contract ultimately went to a large competitor. However, the winning provider adopted Maine Farm and Sea Cooperative's drive for 20% local food within the first year of operations.
Our team of food system, operations, business, and nutrition professionals became a finalist against multi-billion dollar corporations, presented in front of 20+ University of Maine administrators and staff, and successfully scored the highest in multiple categories; Local Sourcing, Sustainability, and Maine Economic Impact.
More Information:
University of Maine System seeks bids on food contract with local focus (2015)