Food Systems and Food Security
Selected Readings and Content
UMaine Extension Bulletins & Factsheets
- Five Steps to Food Safe Fruit and Vegetable Gardening [Word]
- Food for ME: Citizen Action for Community Food Recovery
- A Donor’s Guide to Vegetable Harvest, Bulletin #4303
- A Food Pantry Wish List, Bulletin #4304
- Food for Your Community: Gleaning and Sharing, Bulletin #4301
- Food Safety for Food-Pantry Donations, Bulletin #4302
- Steps to Organizing Your Community Garden, Bulletin #4300
- Storing Fresh Garden Produce (Word)
UMaine Extension Videos
- How Farmers’ Markets Can Donate Food to Maine Harvest for Hunger
- How to Donate Food to Maine Harvest for Hunger
- Maine Harvest for Hunger
- Maine Harvest for Hunger: IDEXX Adopt a Garden Program
- Maine Harvest for Hunger: Yarmouth Community Gardens
- Maine Harvest for Hunger: York County
- What is Maine Harvest for Hunger?
Websites
Additional Resources
- Maine Policy Review, Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center
- Getting What We Pay For: http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol20/iss1/13/ and click download for the pdf
- Hunger in Maine: http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol20/iss1/21/ and click on download for the pdf
- Maine Food Atlas
- Maine Food Council Map
- Maine Network of Community Food Councils
Food Systems Tools, courtesy of the Nourish Initiative, www.nourishlife.org
- Nourish Food System Map: 18” x 24” poster (PDF), 11″ x 14″ poster (PDF), 8.5″ x 11″ poster (PDF)
Master Gardener Volunteer Training
Core Competencies
At the end of these sessions you will be able to articulate and explain:
- The latest statistics and impacts of food insecurity in Maine
- The challenges of providing fresh produce to hungry residents via food pantries
- Clients may not want it
- Little or no refrigeration
- Infrequently open-some pantries only open once a month
- Limited space or facilities
- Expanding need for nutrition education and cooking demos that outstrips current staffing
- How to become more involved in the Maine Harvest for Hunger Program or another local food security program
- The components of a food system and each person’s role in it as a consumer and perhaps also as producer, processor and/or distributor
- How the University of Maine Cooperative Extension supports and is part of the Maine Food System
- The current statistics regarding food waste and steps that can be taken individually and state-wide to minimize the food waste stream
Practical Skills Gained and Strengthened
- How to become more involved in the Maine Harvest for Hunger Program or another local food security program
- Actively involve yourself in the food system – ie. supporting local farms, minimizing waste, becoming an informed consumer