Funding will help promote proper diet using the community garden.

WELD – The Electronic Grange Network announces support from the Maine Nutrition Network with a Five-a-Day the Maine Way grant to teach the importance of a balanced diet, including five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

An award to the nonprofit Electronic Grange Network will assist in continuing efforts to enhance quality lifestyles and literacy skills in rural communities.

The grant will help promote proper diet and nutrition using the community garden established in cooperation with the Seeds of Life program.

The planting, maintaining, harvesting and preparation of produce raised locally will be documented and promoted through the grant.

Weld and Carthage are two of the local communities involved in the pilot project. The goal is to promote healthier living through nutrition education and eating locally grown vegetables, while teaching basic gardening skills that can be passed on from generation to generation in an effort to break the poverty cycle.

The network would also indirectly address the issue of obesity in children and adults through gardening activities and nutrition education programs.

The network is in a unique position to inform rural consumers on how they might gain from a properly planned and prepared nutritional diet. Using local talents and technology to get the message out to the public is a skill the folks at the Community Technology Center have used for years.

Multimedia production and Internet development go along well with basic living skills and agriculture. The idea is to build a healthy lifestyle including the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Proper nutrition is a key issue in creating positive changes in lives. The Five-a-Day the Maine Way grant will help spread the word. Rural, low-income and senior populations will use technology to teach others the merits of the message.

The network is a nonprofit corporation headquartered in Weld. An award-winning program serving low-income, rural consumers, Electronic Grange has received awards from the Kellogg Foundation, Maine Community Foundation and the Arcos Cielos Research Center in Sedona, Ariz.

For more information contact 585-2299 or visit http://www.electronicgrange.net