Southcoast Food Policy Council News

The Ithaca Rotary Club has awarded two $5,000 grants to nonprofit groups in Kenya and Costa Rica for projects that will tackle climate change. In Costa Rica, the Mastate Charitable Foundation is developing a family-run fruit tree and vegetable farm that demonstrates a new model for food production, which reduces the reliance on agricultural chemicals while drawing carbon from the atmosphere.

The Marion Institute was granted $20,000 in state funding for its South Coast Food Policy Council initiative, a program that brings together food pantries, farms, foundations, and social service agencies to promote food security.

This is the first year that Grow Education Farm-to-School program has come to Sippican School. Earlier this year, Sippican Elementary School’s third-grade students were visited by special guest Nate Sander of the Marion Institute for an outdoor lesson about general gardening practices.

The Marion Institute's Southcoast Food Policy Council is ringing the alarm to raise awareness that, despite things being relatively back to normal, food insecurity in the region never went anywhere.

Grow Farm-to-School connects students and schools to agricultural education and locally grown, nutritious food. Under the program, the schools build raised-bed agricultural gardens, which are used for instruction on science, food, nutrition, the environment and more.