Lewiston nutrition center to get $400K in federal funding
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, on Tuesday announced $400,000 in federal funding for St. Mary’s Regional Nutritional Center in Lewiston to develop local and self-reliant food systems.
Funding has been awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, through the Institute’s Community Projects Competitive Grants Program. The program was authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.
“It is essential that our neighbors in need have both enough to eat and that they have access to food that contributes to good health,” King and Collins said in a joint statement. “We are delighted that St. Mary’s Nutrition Center received this funding to promote local food programs and to provide our most vulnerable citizens with nutritious meals.”
St. Mary’s Nutrition Center was founded in 2006 but has roots going back to 1999, when the Lots to Gardens program was launched to provide gardening and food access programming in Lewiston. The Nutrition Center today has a network of community gardens in low-income neighborhoods to grow fresh vegetables.
The organization believes that everyone deserves access to healthy food as a fundamental right, and intentionally uses food as a tool for community building, leadership and youth development, and neighborhood revitalization, according to its website.
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