Harvest Fund
A decade of food funding: The sun sets on the Harvest Fund
Maine Initiatives launched the Harvest Fund in 2000 as a ten-year effort to support environmentally sound, economically viable, and socially just food growing and distribution policies and practices. Our goals were to grow the sustainability movement and inspire other funders to join us in putting their money behind the movement.
Ten years later, at the sunset of the program, the work of the fund (and the work of many like-minded funders and activists) is bearing abundant fruit. Sustainability has become a household word, and many more donors and foundations are now answering the call for support from Maine’s burgeoning sustainability sector.
One result: the Harvest Fund no longer holds a unique niche in Maine grantmaking. So in keeping with changing times, Maine Initiatives is changing how it funds food work:
- We will no longer accept Harvest Fund proposals. (See our last round of grants here.)
- We encourage school-based food programs to apply to our donor-advised Flannel Shirt Fund. Contact us here or call us at 622-6294 if you’d like to apply.
- We now make small rapid-response grants to meet immediate needs through our new Lightning Grants program.
- Grassroots organizations may also apply for one- and three-year grants through our new Grants for Change program.
True to our mission, we seek to fund grassroots organizing. If you’re part of a democratically run membership organization addressing issues that affect Maine people, we want to hear from you.
Looking forward
The work is not done. There is still hunger in Maine, and big out-of-state concerns still dominate the food industry. So through the end of 2010, we’ll be planning how to direct the fund’s remaining dollars where they’ll have the greatest long-term impact. We’ll announce the final plan in our January online News Splash and in our print newsletter. If you’d like to receive that announcement, contact us at info@maineinitiatives.org, and include your postal address.
Our profound thanks go to our long-time Harvest Fund grants committee members for their hard, wise, committed work making the fund a success:
- Joanne Bander
- Wanda Braithwaite-Baril (co-chair)
- Deb Burd
- Jim Hanna
- Russell Libby
- John Piotti
- Nancy Ross (co-chair)
- Jo D. Saffeir
We also thank Maine Initiatives board members Phil Bailey, Don Berry, and Lauralee Raymond for joining the committee this year and helping with this transition.
Maine Initiatives remains dedicated to healthy, affordable, locally grown food for all. We’ll continue funding food programs through Lightning Grants, Grants for Change, and the Flannel Shirt Fund. We’ll also continue working with the Maine food funders network established by Maine Community Foundation and Maine Philanthropy Center.
If you’d like to make suggestions or get more information about the Harvest Fund or our other grants programs, email us or call 622-6294.
Thank you!
Meet our Harvest Fund grantees here.
