To provide administrative oversight of the gardens' day-to-day operations

The Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) awarded a $243,406.12 Cooperative Agreement to Cultivating Community, a woman-owned non-profit organization in Portland, Maine, to provide administrative oversight and management of a community garden program. The grant, funded through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (CFDA 10.912), will support Cultivating Community's responsibilities from September 2024 to September 2026, including managing gardener registration (with priority for low-income/food-insecure individuals), maintaining the waitlist, providing educational opportunities, and hosting volunteer events. The organization has also received sub-awards from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Research Foundation and the State of Maine for related projects focused on market access for immigrant farmers and pandemic response, demonstrating its capacity to leverage federal grants to address diverse community needs in agricultural development, food security, and public health.

This includes managing new and returning gardener registr ation (with priority given to self-identifying low-income/food-insecure gardeners), maintaining the community garden plot waitlist, providing educational opportunities, hosting volunteer events and much more.