Somali immigrants closer to owning 30-acre farm in Lewiston qaranimo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from qaranimo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Somali immigrants closer to owning 30-acre farm in Lewiston
January 3, 2021 GMT
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) A group of African immigrants that leased 30 acres of land to operate a cooperative farm in Lewiston is one step closer to owning the land.
The group that leases the land off Outer College Street is the recipient of two grants totaling $80,000. That means the New Roots Cooperative Farm has obtained nearly $120,000 of its goal of $200,000 to complete the purchase.
“Having ownership changes everything for me and for the community I serve,” Jabril Abdi, one of the New Roots farmers, told the Sun Journal. “It’s really an amazing feeling that our kids have a chance to inherit a unique farmland right here. Nothing makes me happier.”
Owners of New Roots Cooperative Farm in Lewiston have been awarded two grants aimed at tackling systemic racism in Maine, bringing the farmers closer to their goal of owning the land they farm.
New Roots is a Somali Bantu-led cooperative farm that s been in operation since 2016, and sells produce both wholesale and retail to the Lewiston-Auburn community and in southern Maine. A $50,000 grant from the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation to the farm is part of the foundation’s emergency Twin Pandemic grant program, aimed at the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 and systemic racism have had on Maine’s communities, particularly Black, Indigenous and People of Color.