In Your Community
Cumberland County, Maine

• More than 400 University of Maine Cooperative Extension Master Gardener volunteers, trained by Extension faculty and industry experts, serve their communities and educate home gardeners on best practices. One of the program’s successful initiatives is the Master Gardener Internship Program that places Master Gardeners with local horticulture businesses.
   
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s 4-H youth development program provides many Maine youth with their first connection to the University of Maine.
  • Nearly 400 Cumberland County youth are enrolled in 4-H clubs, and an additional 1,500 youth participate in 4-H school and special-interest programs. Recently, youth have worked with the Girl Scouts, Project Safe and Smart, the Bridgton Community Center, the Center for Community and Wolfe’s Neck Farm.
     
• Extension Homemakers volunteered more than 7,000 hours in the Cumberland County community. Their projects ranged from volunteering at nonprofit agencies, schools and local libraries to planting trees and gardens in various towns.
   
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension Eat Well program staff provide nutrition education to limited-income citizens, including food stamp recipients, throughout the state. Participants learn strategies for expanding their food dollar and eating well on low budgets.
  • Over 600 youth and families participated in the Eat Well program and 3,500 individuals benefited from the general foods and nutrition programs across the region. Local participating groups include Head Start Parent groups, senior housing, Chestnut Street Shelter, Portland Homeless Health Clinic, Portland YWCA and Salvation Army.
     
• The Nutrition, Food and Physical Activity Symposium examines research and programs in all areas of community nutrition, physical activity and food safety related to improving the health and well-being of Maine people and reducing the incidence of obesity.
   
• Cooking for Crowds, a food safety training program for volunteer cooks, helps participants develop food preparation skills to minimize risks of food borne illness at their community events. Over 100 cooks participated in the program and no incidents of food-borne illness were reported at community events.
   
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension coordinated the Maine Goat Enterprise Tours of eight farms around the state that featured meat goats or dairy goats. Over 120 people participated in the tours and gathered information about breeding, facilities, marketing and feeding goats as a stimulus to local economic development.

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