Three UMM Students Use Grant to Provide Fresh Produce To Underserved

With assistance from a Hudson Foundation grant, three University of Maine at Machias students have launched The Sipayik Hunger Initiative, a plan to create access to nutritious produce.
Ashley Libby, Laura Mitchell and Kylie Nepture are seniors in UMM’s Psychology & Community Studies program.
The Sipayik (also known as Pleasant Point) Hunger Initiative will help provide a refrigerator for holding produce, canning supplies, and assistance with the community gardens. The students said they received critical assistance from Regina Grabrovac of Healthy Acadia.
Food insecurity is a constant pressure for many and this project and those like it can help alleviate that pressure, the students said. More than two hundred and nine thousand individuals here in Maine are food insecure. Thirty-five percent of Maine’s food insecure population make too much to qualify for public assistance but still must rely on food pantries.
To Learn more about SHI, please contact Ashley ashley.l.libby@maine.edu , Laura laura.mitchell@maine.edu or Kye kylie.neptune@maine.edu.