Your Donation to Cultivating Community Helps New Americans Achieve Independence
Gifts Doubled Through May 31! 🌱 = 🌱🌱
$72,917 raised
$50,000 goal
We are no longer accepting donations on this campaign, but there are other ways for you to support us today!
A Milestone 16 Years in the Making
In 2006, we acquired our New American Sustainable Agriculture Project (NASAP) from CEI to train
refugees and immigrants on how to adapt their native farming techniques to the Maine climate
and economy.
We began with a bold vision for our participants: independence.
In January, four Cultivating Community graduates from that first class purchased a 30-acre farm in Lewiston. New Roots Cooperative Farm is the first immigrant-owned co-op in Maine.
In addition to Cultivating Community's support, many partner organizations aligned to help make the farmers’ goal of owning farmland a reality. Organizations like Maine Farmland Trust, Cooperative Development Institute and Lewiston Good Food Council granted business guidance, land access, and funding.
This spring, a new class of NASAP graduate farmers are working their leased land at Packard Littlefield Farm in Lisbon. Nine New American families are literally planting their roots here in Maine soil. Like their predecessors, they dream of independence.
Omasombo Katuka (pictured right), one of our 2021 graduates, dreams of growing his farm business and owning land in Lewiston, but that’s not all.
“Everything I’ve learned can be done in the Congo. When I visit the Congo, I will bring my training back to the people there. What they can earn in four or five months will change their lives.”
Now, we are excitedly writing the next chapter of Cultivating Community.
Our NASAP team is compiling 16 years of lessons learned. We are analyzing changes in market demand. Navigating the shrinking availability of affordable land. What we are calling “NASAP 2.0” will build on our past successes. We’re on track to become an even more effective training ground for future generations of New American farmers settled in Maine.
With your donation* today, you'll support all our interconnected programs – NASAP, community gardens, and schools – in celebration of our graduates and all the transformational changes on the horizon.
Thank you!
* Special thanks goes to the Glickman Family Foundation for doubling all donations to our spring campaign up to $25,000 through May 31st!