TheWo
AmessagefromFullPlates’
ExecutiveDirector&BoardChair
Dear Supporters,
On the heels o Meals for All, continuing to for the nation effectiveness programs. Th investments i poised to tran breakfast pro meals we all w The momentu
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
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
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
munity. We t of tion few years support of lation, for school schools, o maintain e made. ne will be nation to ow up ood they are a te with es who e effort those sed to do d we are of it.
Yours in partnership,
Justin Strasburger Executive Director
Laura Pineo Chair of the Board
FullPlatesFullPotential BoardMembers
LauraPineo
ChairoftheBoard
FormerSchoolNutritionDirector
JulieButcherPezzino ViceChair
ExecutiveDirector,Children’s Museum&TheatreofMaine
JustinAlfond Treasurer&Co-founder Entrepreneur,Activist& Philanthropist
ChelseyCarrier Secretary Attorney&Mediator
DavidPease DirectorofTalent,Diversity& Inclusion,BangorSavingsBank
DianeWoods BusinessManagement Consultant
ErickaDodgeKatz Dir.ofExternalCommunications &CommunityRelations, HannafordSupermarkets
JeanneLaPointe SchoolNutritionDirector, RSU10
KevinConcannon FormerUSDAUnderSecretary FNCS KhadijaAhmed Entrepreneur,Chef,& Nonprofitfounder MollyClark Co-owner, ColdSpringRanch RyanParker Impact&PartnershipsLeadMaine,FoodCorps
StephanieCesario-DeBiasi ProgramOfficer,Maine CommunityFoundation
JohnWoods Co-founder 1963-2021 InMemoriam:
OurGrantmaking
Changerequiresinvestment,andFullPlatesFull Potentialhasinvestedover$4millioningrantfunding sinceourinception.Andwe’rejustgettingstarted... for child nutrition programs and operators. Full Plates’ grant programs provide funding for equipment, training, resources, pilot projects of best practices, and much more.
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
USDASchoolFoodSystem InnovationGrant
$7.4millioninfundingawardedto7Maineprojects
023, Full Plates was awarded a cooperative t with the USDA to administer the Food System Innovation Grants. awarded $7.4 million to seven projects oughout that state that are focused on ping schools overcome the barriers to asing Maine-based foods for their meal programs and establish long-term and best practices that can be n 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.
THEPROJECTS:
AuburnPublicSchools
School-BasedFoodHub
FivePillarsButchery
HalalMealProductionLab
MaineCoastFishermen’sAssociation
FishermenFeedingK-12Mainers
MaineFoodConvergence
LocalFoodSwitchboard
PeakSeason
StreamliningAccesstoMaineGrown K-12Products
RSU54/MSAD54
SomersetCountyFarmtoSchool Initiative
TheGoodCrust
GoodGrainsontheGo
“I’vebeenproudtoworkinpartnershipwithFullPlates FullPotentialtoensurethatallMainestudentsare healthy,fed,andreadytolearn.Workingwiththe Legislature,wemadeMainethesecondstateinthe nationtoprovidefreeschoolmealssothatallchildren caneatduringtheschoolday.Now,withthisexciting investmentbytheU.S.DepartmentofAgriculture,Full PlatesFullPotentialwillbuildonthatsuccesstohelp schoolsserveourstudentshealthy,locally-grown Mainefood.That’sawinforMainestudents andawinforourfarmers,fishermen,and otherproducers. ”
JanetT.Mills Governor,StateofMaine
Allofourgrantrecipientsaremoving fullsteamaheadontheirprojects! Makesureyou’resignedupfortheFull PlatesFullPotentialnewslettertostay uptodateonalltheirprogress.
RSU16,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
YorkPublicSchools
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 possible and show our amazing progra testing, new recipes, communication Food and Nutrition Director, Whitney
YMCA,OldTown
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
MaineArtsAcademy
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
MaineYouthFood Council
ElevatingYouthVoiceandChoice attheCenterofMaine’s SchoolFoodSystem
The fall of 2024 marks the secon Maine Youth Food Council (MYF works to address hunger in Main student voices and breaking do to food access. The council's hig aged members are passionate a inclusivity, accessibility, and strengthening their school food systems. Members collaborate w their peers, school nutrition pro and teachers/administrators to projects that center youth voice in the school food system.
The council provides opportunit people to develop leadership sk
experience
“Thiscoalitionofyouthleaders, stemmingfromdifferentpartsof ourstate,areworkingtobetterthe schoolfoodsystemforallofusby implementingsustainable...
EELAMARIEHIDIER
Author,Co-facilitatorofMYFC
MAINE YOUTH FOOD COUNCIL
organizing, and learn about food policy. Council members receive a pend and $1,000 project funds chool.
the 2023-2024 school year, council ers engaged in projects such as ssing food waste, developing nt-informed menus, and creating onic school gardens. Additionally, uncil members served on the ew committee for Full Plates’ chool Meals Grant. Council ped form application questions e definition of inclusive school
meals from their experience and perspective.
...andscalableprojectsintheir schools.Theyarediggingdeeper, goingtotherootoftheissue,asking thequestionsthatopenupmuch neededconversations.”
LEELAMARIEHIDIER
FinancialOverview
FullPlatesreliesonthegenerosityofindividuals,throughannual donationsandplannedgiving,andonthesupportofMaine’s community-focusedbusinesses
$434,759 $196,764 $386,961 $2,887,608 $290,826 $28,054 $695
$4,225,667
Tobecomeapartofoursuccess,pleasevisit fullplates.org/donate-online,scantheQRcode, orcontactEricaForsyth,DevelopmentDirector.
EXPENSES
Direct
TheYearAhead
Thisyear,FullPlatesisfocusingontwothingswe knowwillmakeabigdifferenceforMainekids:
Makingschoolmealsmoredeliciousand nutritiousbyincreasingcookingfromscratch withtheuseoflocalingredients
Developingacollaborativestatewidestrategy tofixtheinefficientandproblem-plagued SummerMealsprogram
TransitioningtoScratchCooking
The time is ripe for an inv i scratch cooking. Over the the USDA will be phasing nutritional standards for meals. Rather than wait f Agriculture’s commerciall produced heat-and-serve products to be reformulat we ’ re working with schoo kitchens to teach them ho meet those new nutrition standards by cooking from
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.
“Ithinkthepotentialtoreallybuilda solidculinarycultureisrightatour fingertips,wherewebecomethe statethat’sfocusedonculinary ultureandgivingfarm-fresh oodstokids.”
ngtheningSummer 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 di While for cha level, w things Washi kids ca This is help o comm a com action
We Ma 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.
FullPlates FullPotentialStaff
AnnaKorsen
Policy&ProgramDirector
ChelseaMarshall
Afterschool&SummerMeals
AmericorpsVISTA
ChristineGreenier
ChildNutritionConsultant
GretaWarren
FinanceManager
JustinStrasburger
ExecutiveDirector
KeirstinRead
DevelopmentPartnership Manager
DanielSchechtman
CommunicationsManager
EricaForsyth
DevelopmentDirector
KirstenTenney
CommunityEngagement Manager
LynnetteHarriman
ChildNutritionConsultant
FinnMadden
GrantsManager
RobinKerber
ImplementationManager
