SUN JOURNAL • April 6, 2025
A Lisbon Falls farm was able to build a strong relationship during the pandemic with Lisbon schools through the federal Local Foods for Schools program, which provides funding to districts to buy local produce. That’s all in peril now. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month the program has been canceled along with $2.78 million in federal funding that would have come to Maine over the next three years. As school districts recalibrate how much they can afford to purchase from local producers, the farms, many of them already struggling financially, are bracing for the loss of income they had planned on.