PORTLAND — Cultivating Community on Elm Street has been awarded two federal grants to help refugee and immigrant farmers in Maine.

A $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be used to build refugee agriculture in Maine and a $537,604 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be used to support socially disadvantaged farmers.

“Many members of Maine’s growing refugee and immigrant population bring deep agricultural knowledge here with them, and our local food system only stands to benefit by welcoming new growers into our food and farming community,” said Cultivating Community Farmer Training Program Director Alex Redfield said.

Cultivating Community is a nonprofit food justice organization whose work has extended to the refugee and immigrant community in Maine.

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