FARMINGTON – Representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are making a 16-county tour to “highlight rural development projects chosen for their importance to the community and impacts on the surrounding area,” according to Emily Cannon, a public affairs specialist for the department.
Michael Aube, Maine state director of the USDA, presented an enlarged check for $300,000 for a matching grant and loan package from the department to the Fairbanks School Neighborhood Association on Tuesday morning. It’s for renovations on the Fairbanks School on Route 4 north of downtown Farmington. The association has undertaken a capital campaign for the $105,000 in matching funds it needs to raise before it can accept the money from the federal agency.
The Rev. Scott Planting, chairman of the association’s building committee, told the approximately two dozen people gathered for the event that association members have met every month for about six years.
“If sheer energy and will can build it, this group can do it,” he said.
“How do we value home? We eat,” he continued. This building is all about food, he said. “Food is at the heart of what we do.”
A food closet has been operating in the basement for at least three years, and an incubator kitchen – a licensed facility where cottage industries can produce food products on a small scale – is planned for the first floor.
The number of clients for the food closet has never decreased since it opened, he said. That’s ironic in a town named “Farming-town,” he added.
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