Downeast Restorative Harvest
Healthy Acadia is partnering with the Washington County Jail, Department of Corrections, other community partners, and individuals like you to establish an innovative Community Garden program in Machias. The garden will engage jail and prison residents, members of the recovery community, agriculture educators, and other community members in growing food for the jail’s kitchen as well as for donation to local food assistance programs.
The cultivation of vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers, combined with agricultural training opportunities, will provide participants with valuable life and employment skills. Exposure to gardens and other natural environments can lead to improved mental and behavioral health among jail residents. Positive impacts include increased confidence, new skills and work experience, and increased potential for post-release employment.
Program Objectives
‣ Support the mental, emotional, and physical health of jail residents
‣ Support the attainment of valuable life and employment skills for jail residents
‣ Increase access to healthier foods in the jail and area food pantries
‣ Reduce recidivism among program participants
‣ Promote local agriculture education for jail residents and the broader community
‣ Demonstrate a successful pilot jail garden to be replicated in other counties
Located on a parcel of county-owned land off of Broadway Street in Machias, and with a long term lease for use, the garden and Downeast Restorative Harvest (DERH) program are taking shape. Building good soil and strong infrastructure are top priorities for success.
Project Updates
2024 Community Garden Days
Come join the Healthy Acadia team and active community members in nurturing the development of our new Community Garden! We extend a warm invitation to all interested community members to participate in our Garden Days, which will take place weekly on Tuesdays and every third Saturday of the month from 9-11 a.m., starting on Saturday, April 20, 2024, and running through October. Your presence and involvement are highly encouraged and most welcomed!
Register here. For information or to sign up, contact Lucy: 207-479-6940, lucy.zwigard@healthyacadia.org.
Garden Update - March 2024
Crop planning and yield calculations, including all our succession planting schedule, were completed in February, with a hopeful estimate of growing 4,000 pounds of produce this season, if the weather and our soil cooperate. Excitement is building as all the necessary supplies begin to trickle in for the 2024 season.
Our irrigation supplies and seeds for the nineteen different crops we’ll be planting this year have arrived at Healthy Acadia’s Machias office. We are grateful to Dan Cunningham at Folklore Farm in Cherryfield who is growing the eleven different transplant starts needed this year, as we do not yet have a dedicated seed starting space.
As of late March, most of the groundwork for the barn is complete, and we are in the process of finalizing the barn construction plan. Meanwhile, we have secured interim storage space less than a mile down the road from the garden that we will use until our on-site pole barn is built.
There is an amazing 853 model BCS walk-behind tractor and implement tiller waiting for our pick up at Bob’s Small Engine Service in Bucksport. Transport arrangements have been made with support from Taylor Weiss, who previously supported our food programs as an AmeriCorps FoodCorps Service Member - thank you, Taylor!
Various hand tools and a double-layer deer deterrent fence system have been well-researched and will be purchased soon. Thank you, Felicia Newman of Three Dog Farm in Lubec for sharing your farm systems wisdom!
The ground here in Downeast Coastal Maine is still very wet and cold and while farmers with high tunnels and seed starting options are already hard at work, our garden will not be an early one especially this first year. Our first in ground planting will be onion plants (via the University of Maine Cooperative Extension) and sugar snap peas during the second or third week of April. And if we are delayed by an extra week, it will be fine. We are on track! Now, it's up to the weather.
Stay tuned for updates throughout the garden season!
Updated April 6, 2024.
2023
In 2023, we installed an access road, prepared the site for a greenhouse and storage barn, drilling a well, and installing electricity. We applied soil amendments and planted cover crops on the first 15,000 square feet of garden in order to ready the ground for production in 2024.
Our work is being done with strong collaboration with the jail, Maine Department of Corrections, and other key partners to ensure that we design a program that centers the needs of jail and prison residents and welcomes broader community engagement. Feedback from jail residents is being gathered this spring, and a diverse Advisory Council meets regularly to guide the project’s development.
Planning for a second fall Farm Dinner Fundraiser at Beech Hill Farm is also in the works that will include a land tour event. Stay tuned!
To learn more about Downeast Restorative Harvest, contact Katie Freedman at Katie@HealthyAcadia.org or by calling 207-667-7171. To learn more about Chefs in Prisons, contact Erica Lawson at Elawson@impactjustice.org. To make a gift directly in support of these projects, please visit bit.ly/restorative-harvest or impactjustice.org/donate. Your gift will be doubled, as both organizations are the recipients of generous matching gift pledges. The organizations are tremendously grateful for all community support.
Program Overview: Downeast Restorative Harvest 2023 (PDF)
Highlights from the 2022 Food Justice Farm Dinner
On August 30, 2022, Healthy Acadia and Impact Justice hosted a dinner and conversation at Beech Hill Farm focused on food justice in Maine’s prisons and jails. The evening featured musical contributions and renowned guest speakers and benefited Healthy Acadia’s Downeast Restorative Harvest project and Impact Justice’s Chefs in Prisons. This first-of-its-kind pilot project aims to improve food service operations and serve healthier meals in all of Maine's prisons and also provide culinary training to incarcerated people. These two new projects are geared toward dramatically improving the quality of food available to incarcerated individuals in Maine.
Impact Justice, which sparked a national conversation about the poor quality of food in prison through its 2020 report Eating Behind Bars, has teamed up with renowned chef Dan Giusti and his company Brigaid, which has a track record of transforming institutional food service, to launch Chefs in Prisons.
The event on August 30 showcased the common thread of these two projects: expanding access to fresh, healthy, appealing food to all Mainers. View the event recording here.