WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King today announced that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded Cultivating Community -- a Portland-based organization dedicated to creating and sustaining greater access to healthy, affordable, local foods in Maine -- a $750,000 grant to support a project that will provide intensive, land-based training to four groups of new farmers and is aimed toward socially-disadvantaged or limited resource immigrants.

The grant is part of more than $18 million awarded nationwide as part of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The BFRDP strives to educate, mentor, and enhance the sustainability of the next generation of farmers.

“Agriculture is not only essential to Maine’s economy, but it also represents the entrepreneurial spirit that is the fabric of the American dream,” said Senators Collins and King in a joint statement. “This award will help new farmers to learn and perfect their trade as well as support new jobs and our rural communities.”

The full list of awardees can be found HERE and more information about USDA support for new farmers and ranchers is available HERE.

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