2024 Annual Impact Report - Full Plates Full Potential

Table of Contents 02

The Work Continues

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Our Grantmaking

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USDA School Food System Innovation Grant

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Maine Youth Food Council

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Financial Overview

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The Year Ahead

The Work Continues A message from Full Plates’ Executive Director & Board Chair

Dear Supporters,

On the heels of Healthy School Meals for All, Maine is continuing to lead the way for the nation in increasing the effectiveness of child nutrition programs. Through historic investments in local foods, we are poised to transform school lunch and breakfast programs into the types of meals we all want served to our kids.

The momentum is growing!

At the same time, we are facing an uphill battle.

Childhood food insecurity rates are predictably back to their pre-pandemic levels due to cuts in support for families, while budgets for organizations and schools are being slashed across the state. If we, as a society, care about children’s access to nutritious food, we need to start investing in the programs that stand to do the 02

most good. Support for child nutrition programs isn’t just an investment in the future generation, but a promise to support our state’s agricultural and seafood industries, our workforce, and our communities.

Full Plates continues to lead efforts throughout the state with our ear to the ground. We have an adaptive five-year strategic plan to guide both our work, and the collaborative

efforts in your community. We will need the support of everyone in our coalition throughout the next few years - voices to testify in support of common-sense legislation, parents to advocate for school meals in their public schools, and those in power to maintain the progress we have made.

We truly believe Maine will be the first state in the nation to make sure all kids grow up with the nutritious food they need to succeed. We are a small but mighty state with tight-knit communities who are ready to put in the effort necessary to care for those around them. efforts of our partner organizations. It is a careful balance of dreaming big, while remaining realistic about practical solutions to complex problems, and maintaining space to be nimble for potential curve balls that may crop up over the next few years.

We encourage you to read through the stories in our annual impact report, and to learn more about anti-hunger

Together, we are poised to do something great, and we are grateful to be a part of it.

Yours in partnership,

Justin Strasburger Executive Director

Laura Pineo Chair of the Board 03

Full Plates Full Potential Board Members Laura Pineo

Jeanne LaPointe

Chair of the Board Former School Nutrition Director

School Nutrition Director, RSU 10

Julie Butcher Pezzino

Kevin Concannon

Vice Chair Executive Director, Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine

Former USDA Under Secretary FNCS

Justin Alfond

Khadija Ahmed

Treasurer & Co-founder Entrepreneur, Activist & Philanthropist

Entrepreneur, Chef, & Nonprofit founder

Chelsey Carrier

Molly Clark

Secretary Attorney & Mediator

Co-owner, Cold Spring Ranch

David Pease

Ryan Parker

Director of Talent, Diversity & Inclusion, Bangor Savings Bank

Impact & Partnerships Lead Maine, FoodCorps

Diane Woods

Stephanie Cesario-DeBiasi

Business Management Consultant

Program Officer, Maine Community Foundation

Ericka Dodge Katz

In Memoriam: John Woods

Dir. of External Communications & Community Relations, Hannaford Supermarkets 04

Co-founder 1963-2021

Our Grantmaking Change requires investment, and Full Plates Full Potential has invested over $4 million in grant funding since our inception. And we’re just getting started...

Grantmaking continues to be one of our biggest impacts on the effectiveness of child nutrition programs in our state. In a system that is not adequately funded, our funding is often a lifeline

for child nutrition programs and operators. Full Plates’ grant programs provide funding for equipment, training, resources, pilot projects of best practices, and much more.

Total Orgs. Funded by County

Grant Categories FY 2024 Emergency Kitchen Equipment $49,870.00

Schools

Breakfast $79,951.06

Community Orgs.

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Inclusive School Meals $75,000.00 Afterschool $47,272.61

70 Grants $546,916.85

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An dr os c Ar og o g Cu os in m too be k rl Fr and an H kli an n Ke co nn ck eb e Kn c Li ox nc o O ln Pe xfo no rd Pi bs sc c a ot Sa taq ga ui d s So ah m oc er se W W t as al hi do ng to n Yo rk

0 Summer $294,823.18

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USDA School Food System Innovation Grant $7.4 million in funding awarded to 7 Maine projects In March 2023, Full Plates was awarded a cooperative agreement with the USDA to administer the School Food System Innovation Grants.

We’ve awarded $7.4 million to seven projects throughout that state that are focused on helping schools overcome the barriers to purchasing Maine-based foods for their school meal programs and establish long-term solutions and best practices that can be replicated in other regions.

Additionally, Full Plates has invested $1.1 million of School Food Innovation Grant funding to continue the Culinary Skills for School Meals summer training in partnership with MaineHealth’s Let’s Go Program, and to support Healthy Communities of the Capital Area’s capacity building, convening, and related efforts for their Maine Farm and Sea to School Institute.

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THE PROJECTS: Auburn Public Schools School-Based Food Hub Five Pillars Butchery Halal Meal Production Lab Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association Fishermen Feeding K-12 Mainers Maine Food Convergence Local Food Switchboard Peak Season Streamlining Access to Maine Grown K-12 Products RSU 54/MSAD 54 Somerset County Farm to School Initiative The Good Crust Good Grains on the Go

“I’ve been proud to work in partnership with Full Plates Full Potential to ensure that all Maine students are healthy, fed, and ready to learn. Working with the Legislature, we made Maine the second state in the nation to provide free school meals so that all children can eat during the school day. Now, with this exciting investment by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Full Plates Full Potential will build on that success to help schools serve our students healthy, locally-grown Maine food. That’s a win for Maine students, and a win for our farmers, fishermen, and other producers.”

Janet T. Mills Governor, State of Maine

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All of our grant recipients are moving full steam ahead on their projects!

Make sure you’re signed up for the Full Plates Full Potential newsletter to stay up to date on all their progress.

RSU 16, Poland In Poland, RSU 16 received a Full Plates’ Breakfast Grant to purchase a three-door cooler for their high school and middle school breakfast programs. This allows them to offer new items such as yogurt parfaits, smoothies, overnight oats, and assorted proteins.

"Most students had never heard of overnight oats and now we have students who will come just to get them for breakfast. The yogurt parfaits have tripled in sales since the cooler. It is a great merchandising tool." - RSU 16 Food Service Director, Ellen Dore

York Public Schools York Public Schools used grant funding to do taste tests for students. Students compared real maple syrup to maple-flavored syrup, and local yogurt to commercially produced yogurt.

“Knowledge is power, and we want to educate as many people as possible and show our amazing program. We hope to continue our taste testing, new recipes, communication blasts, etc." - York Public Schools Food and Nutrition Director, Whitney Thornton

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YMCA, Old Town The YMCA in Old Town provides Afterschool Meals, but runs the program with a one-man team. Federal reimbursements barely cover the expense of the program. Add in equipment that is not commercial sized and the program’s administrative responsibilities and it is a wonder they are able to serve meals at all! With a grant from Full Plates, they were able to purchase two new refrigerators, metro shelving, and various kitchen containers and small goods to aid in the production and storage of food for their afterschool program.

“The addition of proper refrigeration has significantly made our chef’s life easier by being able to refrigerate cases of products and keeping items centrally located in one place. The more time he saves on preparation and admin allows him more time working hands-on with our students on cooking projects and nutrition teaching. We see a huge increase in our students' openness to new foods when they help make it, and their trust and relationship with our chef grows the more contact they get.” - Old Town Orono YMCA

Maine Arts Academy Maine Arts Academy received a Breakfast Grant from Full Plates and used their funding to help provide a second chance breakfast after the bell in the classroom. They engaged Visual Arts and Graphic Design students to create the advertisements for the program.

“The students engaging in the advertising process really helped get them excited! The small practice of delivering breakfast to classrooms really, substantially increased participation.” - Maine Arts Academy

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Maine Youth Food Council Elevating Youth Voice and Choice at the Center of Maine’s School Food System

The fall of 2024 marks the second year of our Maine Youth Food Council (MYFC). The council works to address hunger in Maine by centering student voices and breaking down barriers to food access. The council's high schoolaged members are passionate about inclusivity, accessibility, and strengthening their school food systems. Members collaborate with their peers, school nutrition professionals, and teachers/administrators to implement projects that center youth voice and choice in the school food system.

The council provides opportunities for young people to develop leadership skills, gain experience

LEELA MARIE HIDIER

Author, Co-facilitator of MYFC “This coalition of youth leaders, stemming from different parts of our state, are working to better the school food system for all of us by implementing sustainable...

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EST.

2023

MAINE YOUTH FOOD COUNCIL in community organizing, and learn about food systems and policy. Council members receive a personal stipend and $1,000 project funds for each school.

During the 2023-2024 school year, council members engaged in projects such as addressing food waste, developing student-informed menus, and creating hydroponic school gardens. Additionally, youth council members served on the grant review committee for Full Plates’ Inclusive School Meals Grant. Council members helped form application questions and guided the definition of inclusive school meals from their experience and perspective.

LEELA MARIE HIDIER ...and scalable projects in their schools. They are digging deeper, going to the root of the issue, asking the questions that open up much needed conversations.”

HEAR DIRECTLY FROM LEELA

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Financial Overview Full Plates relies on the generosity of individuals, through annual donations and planned giving, and on the support of Maine’s community-focused businesses.

INCOME Individual Giving:

$434,759

Events:

$196,764

Institutional Giving:

$386,961

Planned Giving:

$2,887,608

Government Funding:

$290,826

Interest Income:

$28,054

Other:

$695

Government Individual 6.9% 10.3% Institutional 9.2%

INCOME $4,225,667

Planned 68.3%

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Events 4.7%

Interest 0.6%

To become a part of our success, please visit fullplates.org/donate-online, scan the QR code, or contact Erica Forsyth, Development Director.

EXPENSES Direct Grantmaking:

$531,867

Programs:

$618,882

Administration:

$239,754

Fundraising:

$244,487

Fundraising 13.9% Direct Grantmaking 32.9% Administration 14.8%

EXPENSES $1,634,990

Programs 38.3%

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The Year Ahead This year, Full Plates is focusing on two things we know will make a big difference for Maine kids: Making school meals more delicious and nutritious by increasing cooking from scratch with the use of local ingredients Developing a collaborative statewide strategy to fix the inefficient and problem-plagued Summer Meals program

Transitioning to Scratch Cooking The time is ripe for an investment in scratch cooking. Over the next few years, the USDA will be phasing in new nutritional standards for school meals. Rather than wait for Big Agriculture’s commercially produced heat-and-serve products to be reformulated, we’re working with school kitchens to teach them how to meet those new nutritional standards by cooking from scratch.

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Additionally, our historic investment in the local school food ecosystem will enable more of those ingredients used in scratch cooking to be sourced from within our state. Keeping money in Maine’s economy and feeding kids amazing meals is a win-win!

However, this will not be easy in a state where most school kitchens lack the equipment and space for scratch cooking. We will be calling on our partners in the corporate and government sectors to help us retrofit kitchens and get nutrition staff the tools they need. We know that Mainers are resourceful and innovative, and we’re ready to help school nutrition staff redefine what school meals are.

“I think the potential to really build a solid culinary culture is right at our fingertips, where we become the state that’s focused on culinary culture and giving farm-fresh foods to kids.”

- Chef Sam Gasbarro Culinary Skills for School Meals

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Strengthening Summer Meal Programs In Maine, 1 out of every 5 kids is food insecure. And in summer, the majority of those kids who rely on school breakfast and lunch during the academic year go without the food they need.

There are federal child nutrition programs to help during the summer - Summer Meals and SUNBucks - but they are often hard for communities to operate and difficult for families to access.

While we continue to advocate for change at the federal level, we know how slowly things move in Washington, and Maine’s kids can’t afford to wait.

This is a crisis. So, with the help of our committed community, we plan to develop a comprehensive statewide action plan for summer meals.

We Mainers are resourceful, and we’re confident that we’ll be able to identify new opportunities for partnership, scale best practices, and clearly identify any gaps that need to be filled.

By coming together and leveraging our individual and collective strengths, we can make sure that Summer 2025 is the start of a sea change here in Maine.

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Full Plates Full Potential Staff Anna Korsen

Greta Warren

Policy & Program Director

Finance Manager

Chelsea Marshall

Justin Strasburger

Afterschool & Summer Meals Americorps VISTA

Executive Director

Christine Greenier

Keirstin Read

Child Nutrition Consultant

Development Partnership Manager

Daniel Schechtman

Kirsten Tenney

Communications Manager

Community Engagement Manager

Erica Forsyth

Lynnette Harriman

Development Director

Child Nutrition Consultant

Finn Madden

Robin Kerber

Grants Manager

Implementation Manager

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