Sebago Lake Roatary Club works to end hunger in Southern Maine - By Elizabeth Richards

The Sebago Lake Rotary Club has been working hard to combat hunger in the communities it serves. Through two recent events, the club has made a huge impact, contributing close to $2,000 to the Community Coin Challenge and packaging 31,272 meals to be distributed to food pantries throughout  Southern Maine.

 

The club’s Feet for Food Walk was held at Windham Middle School on Sunday, September 21^st. “The walk was initially created so that we could have a greater impact on the Community Coin Challenge,” said club secretary Cyndy Bell. Though participation wasn’t as high as the club had hoped due to conflicts with other events and rainy weather, about 40 people showed up to walk and others drove through to donate even though they weren’t able to stay and walk. The club was able to double the donation they have given to the Community Coin Challenge in past years.

The Feet for Food Walk will be an annual event, Bell said. “We’re hoping for it to be bigger and better next year,” she said. They would like local businesses to create teams, and because it’s a short one mile walk, anyone can participate, especially children, she said. “I think once the word gets out what a great cause it is, the community will rally,” she added.

Some of the proceeds of the walk also went to support a food packaging event that the Sebago Lake Rotary Club held at the Maine Mall on Saturday, September 27^th. Working with End Hunger NE, the northeast division of Outreach, Inc., the club set out to package 20,000 macaroni and cheese meals to be distributed through Southern Maine food pantries. The club initially raised $2,500 for this event, and was given a matching grant from Modern Woodmen of Windham to get to the $5,000 needed to package 20,000 meals.

On the day of the event, Matthew Martin, Regional Manager, Outreach, Inc. told the group of 60 volunteers, which included Rotarians from the Sebago Lake club and other area clubs, plus family and friends, that a challenge had been issued. A group in Buffalo, NY was holding a similar event on the same day, and challenged the Maine group to package 31,000 meals. “Rotarians don’t pass up a challenge too often,” said Bell. 

 

As a result, the group put together 31,272 meals, breaking the State of Maine record for meals packaged at an event by one bag, which is six meals, said Martin. The previous record holder was a Methodist Church in South Portland, said Martin, and next weekend he’ll be in Ellsworth trying to break the record again. This is the beginning of the fourth school year that Martin has been working with End Hunger NE and this month was the second biggest ever in terms of meals packaged, primarily because of the push the Rotary club made last weekend.

End Hunger NE has packaged almost 300,000 meals in Maine, which is important because of the level of food insecurity in the state, particularly among children. In the 117 counties throughout the Northeast that he has worked in, Martin said that only 16 have 25 percent or more hunger among children. Six of those are in Maine. “That is the drive to get into Maine more often, and with bigger events, because the need is so great,” he said.

Ending hunger has been a big focus for the club this month, and will continue to be an area that the club concentrates on, said Bell. One in four children in Maine are food insecure, Bell said, and that is something that can’t be allowed to happen. “It’s something that’s always on our minds,” she added. “We’re always looking for ways that we can impact the community in a very positive way.”  Last year the club did a smaller packaging event of 8,000 meals. The grant from Modern Woodmen and the extra money raised at Feet for Food allowed them to have a much larger impact this year, said Bell.

The additional meals packaged for the challenge cost the club $2,800. Other rotary clubs in the district offered assistance, and the club is still accepting donations to offset the additional costs. Donations can be sent to the Sebago Lake Rotary Club Charitable Fund, PO Box 1941, Windham, ME  04062 or made online at www.gofundme.com/add9p8.

Story walk opens with Bug Safari at Lippman Park - By Michelle Libby

Little Darius Bean is full of energy. At 2 years old he doesn’t walk from place to place, he runs. On Tuesday, he and his father joined Windham parks and rec employee Lynn Bucknell at Donnabeth Lippman Park to walk (or run) the new story walk, titled “Bug Safari” written and illustrated by Bob Barner and published by Holiday House.
 

The story walk opened to the public this week, featuring the book spread out page by page into 14 signs that meander through a trail at the park. 

“We’ve used a portable story walk for a snowshoeing event and Payson Park has a story walk,” said parks and rec director Brian Ross. “We had a nice set up to do something like this.” 

In June the idea to do the story walk became more than an idea and Ross applied for a grant and was given around $300 from The Opportunity Alliance in Portland to fund the project. 

If the parks and recreation department can get the funding they would like to have a few more stories to “mix it up” through the year, Ross said. 

The Windham Public Library supported the project and they have the hardcover book in circulation for those who would like to read it at home or at the library. Ross also worked with Kirsten Cappy at Curious City in Portland, an advocate for children’s literature. 

Bug Safari is a story about “a young explorer describes his experiences as he tracks an army of ants through ‘a bug-infested jungle,’ observing their progress through a magnifying glass. The insects run into some dreadful hazards on their trek--a squadron of fierce red ants, a spider, a toad, and other predators. The safari ends in the child's own backyard, where his mother is waiting with a picnic lunch for the hungry boy and the ants.” (www.amazon.com)

The visitors to the story walk are encouraged to hop like a frog or march like ants from sign to sign.

“I thought it was a good fit for our area – it’s a nature type book,” said Ross. 

Ross encourages families, daycares and anyone interested to visit the story walk right of Route 302 in North Windham. One group brought a picnic lunch to have after they took the story walk. Enjoy the good weather with a book. 

The signs will be in place until mid-November or until the snow flies, said Ross.

Manchester reaps the fruits and veggies of its laborers - By Elizabeth Richards

Classes involved in Manchester Gardens for Learning have been working hard this month to gather the bounty grown in their school gardens. This year’s harvest includes tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, melons and some good sized pumpkins, as well as garlic, herbs and a variety of greens.

The produce is used in the school cafeteria, and any surplus is given to the local food pantry, according to master gardener Pam Lanz, the school’s retired guidance counselor who remains very active as a volunteer with the gardening program. 

Sabrina Nickerson, one of the teachers involved in the program, said that students help harvest the vegetables, as well as assist with putting the beds to sleep for the winter, planning winter crops for the hoop-house, and in February, choosing and starting seeds for the 2015 gardens.

Gardening has been an element at Manchester School since the school’s renovation in 1998/99, according to Lanz. At that time, she was asked to plant some flowers and bulbs to add to the landscaping. In 2009 the Manchester Gardens for Learning committee was formed, and they decided to try planting some vegetables.

Inspired by a school in Gorham, said Lanz, the group started small. Three classroom teachers were interested in participating, so three raised beds were built. In 2011, the group received a grant to build a hoop house to extend the growing season, providing more food for more of the school year. The hoop house at Manchester was the first commercial hoop house built by David Tidwell at Eden House, and he has been a source of ongoing support, said Lanz. For the past two years, greens grown in the hoop house have survived bitter Maine winter weather and been served in the cafeteria.

The goals of the gardening program were originally tied into addressing the obesity epidemic, Lanz said. The group wanted the children to understand where food comes from, and what makes food healthy. The main goal was to grow food so it could be used in the school cafeteria. The adults try to direct students towards that goal when choosing seeds to plant. “We’re getting better at what we grow, and how much we grow,” said Lanz.

This year the group has been tracking how many pounds are harvested, giving those numbers to food service so they can see how much money they are saving by using school grown produce.

An added bonus, said Lanz, is that children are also gaining hands on learning in many subjects, which research has shown leads to better academic achievement. “You can incorporate most school subjects into gardening, particularly math and science,” said Lanz.

The Manchester Gardens for Learning program has support from a core group of staff and parents who help maintain the gardens. Lanz added that Bill Hansen, Director of Facilities for RSU 14, has also been supportive in many ways, such as setting up grow lights and allowing for the added electricity costs. “That’s really critical if you’re going to have a structure like that on school property,” said Lanz.

In addition to the hands-on gardening tasks, students have lessons in the classroom, learning about topics like pollination, seed starting, sprouting and sampling sprouts. Lanz said they try to do these lessons during the colder months, when it’s harder to get outside. 

Working in the garden often allows unexpected real life lessons, such as when the students found a hornworm and a rich discussion arose, said Lanz. “It’s exploring, for many of them, something they are not that familiar with,” she said. 

Future goals include starting a compost pile and fencing the garden to ward off potential pest or theft issues. The school has been fortunate to date, not having had to deal with any major issues in the garden, said Lanz. “We’re trying to grow things more so they are ready when the kids are there,” Lanz added.

Manchester Gardens for Learning will hold a community open house as part of School Garden Open House Day on Saturday, September 27^th, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. They will offer a variety of activities and tours of the garden.

Gray and Windham Schools benefit from Shaw's Supermarkets' "We Love Our Schools" partnership - By Tracy Scheckel

As part of Shaw’s Supermarkets’ 150 year commitment to community service, the company has launched the “We Love Our Schools” program. According to Greg Duball, the store manager in North Windham, “The staff and I looked at the communities that our store serves and selected one school in Gray and one in Windham to offer a partnership to.” He explained that the program offers various types of assistance to the schools ranging from volunteers for special or ongoing assignments to funds for special projects, initiatives and events. 

Russell Elementary in Gray and the Windham Primary School were the recipients of the program with Duball noting that it was a conscious decision to select elementary schools because staff saw more opportunity for volunteer activities.

To kick off the We Love Our Schools partnership, Duball and two store employees, Bakery Manager, Denise Biossonneault, and Assistant Deli Manage, Chelsea Spurling visited Russell on September 23 with two beautiful sheet cakes and a check for $400.

About 30 children representing kindergarten, first, and second grade, along with parents, teachers and staff gathered to greet and thank Shaw’s for the gifts. Russell School Principal Gloria Noyes said that staff and the students would put their heads together to find a good use for the money. She noted that there is much interest in STEM as well as health initiatives and in the schools’ “I Care” program. As for the cake? Students and staff were planning to dig in during lunch on Wednesday. 

Duball and his staff were headed to the Windham Primary School for a similar presentation on September 25.

 

Russell School students, parents and staff great the Shaw’s Team and thanks them for the donation of $400