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The continued vitality of the agricultural landscape in Maine depends on the vitality of the farm businesses within it. Planning for and enacting changes, adaptations, and growth is critical for farm businesses to achieve sustainable profitability. The Maine Farms for the Future Program is a two-phase competitive program that provides selected farms with business planning assistance and investment support.
Phase 1, or the Business Plan Development Program, provides grants to farm businesses to conduct strategic business planning and research for “Idea(s) for Change” that might increase Farm Vitality, or the “long-term, maintainable, farm profitability and net worth.” Selected farms are awarded $6000, which can be used to work with a business advisor to develop a Business Plan and/or to work with other approved agricultural and professional service providers to research the Idea for Change.
Phase 2, or the Investment Support Program to Implement a Business Plan, provides the opportunity to apply for low-interest loans and in some instances, cash grants to invest in infrastructure or equipment related to the Idea for Change investigated in Phase 1. Selected farms receive a recommendation to apply for an AMLF loan of up to $250,000 with a 2% interest rate. Farms who are willing and able to protect at least 5 acres of farmland for at least 7 years are also eligible to apply for a cash grant of up to $25,000.
Both RFAs and additional information can be obtained on Farms for the Future program website.
Applications Open: January 24, 2025
Written Questions Due: January 31, 2025 AND February 21, 2025
Applications Due: 11:59 PM, March 7, 2025
Contact Mariam Taleb for more information: mariam.taleb@maine.gov
The Maine Healthy Soils Program is partnering with Augusta-based Woods End Laboratories to provide no-cost soil health testing for Maine farmers. Program staff will work with you to collect soil samples and review the test results with you. Soil health testing provides you with a data-based foundation for choosing, integrating, and adjusting your healthy soils best practices.
Appointments are available from April through November on a first-come-first-served basis. Sign up today by filling out our booking form and selecting the ‘Soil Health Testing – Soil Sampling’ service.
Contact Matthew Boucher for more information: matthew.boucher@maine.gov.
The Sewall Foundation is committed to working with our grantee and philanthropic partners to co-create a thriving, healthy, and just food system where local communities are guiding decisions about, and have abundant access to, the resources needed for collective well-being and the foods that remind us we belong. The Food Systems program will support efforts that are working in one or more of the following areas in Maine:
- Food justice
- Food sovereignty
- Land and water sovereignty and access
- Nutrition equity
- Food networks
- Food policy
2025 available funding: $1,870,000
Applications are due by 5 PM on February 13, 2025.
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Contact Kristina Kalolo for more information: kkalolo@sewallfoundation.org
Since the first gathering in 2015, the Northeast Farm to Institution Summit has become a seminal event for a dynamic network of communities, organizations, and institutions working together to create a just, equitable, and regenerative food system in New England and beyond. This network includes those who are impacted by the decisions and actions made through this movement/work; those working to leverage the power of institutions and institutional value chains to change the food system; and those who hold power and resources in the institutional value chain and food system. More than 500 participants typically attend, including but not limited to; food service operators, producers, supply chain businesses, advocates, public officials, educators, funders, and students.
The exhibitor fair at the Farm to Institution Summit will be located in the spacious hallways of the Holiday Inn by the Bay, where all of the activity will happen! All summit attendees will be moving through it over the course of the day. Refreshments will be available in this area.
Where: Portland, Maine at the Holiday Inn-by-the-Bay
When: April 7-9, 2025
Rate: $500
Table fee does not include registration. Every exhibitor must purchase a registration (standard fee $350; sliding scale available). Registration opens early 2025.
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