Ending Hunger Corps VISTA

For over 40 years, New Beginnings has helped children, teens, and young adults find safety, build connections, and access the opportunities for growth that they need to thrive. Our mission is to partner with youth to create lasting change, so all youth have a safe place to live and opportunities to grow, and our vision is a world in which all youth are safe and valued in their communities. Our comprehensive services prevent young people from becoming homeless, support struggling families, and help vulnerable youth grow into stable and healthy adults.

The Outreach Food Project VISTA will be based in our Drop-In Center in Lewiston, Maine's second largest city boasting a vibrant community spirit and easy access to a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities along with quick access to Portland's more traditionally urban environment via I-95. The VISTA will develop systems to better utilize donated food and increase in-kind food donations, volunteers, and community outreach to support project growth. These capacity-building activities will result in increased meals, mobile food pantry utilization, and produce grown on-site at raised bed garden plots to reduce food insecurity among young people served by the Street Outreach Program.

An ideal candidate will be excited about our mission; be comfortable in a youth-focused & designed environment and engaging with a variety of external community partners; and is passionate about the importance of equitable food access. The VISTA will have access to a variety of training opportunities related to the work of New Beginnings at no cost.

Downeast Community Partners (DCP) is committed to improving the quality of life and reducing the impact of poverty in Downeast Communities. We recognize that these communities are made up of people who are diverse and vibrant and believe that all people are entitled to be treated with dignity and compassion. We are in Down East Maine, a large geographic area that encompasses rural communities of Hancock and Washington counties on the scenic bold coast Maine from Penobscot Bay to the Canadian border - an area of unspoiled natures that includes our rocky coastline, lakes, blueberry fields and diverse wildlife. For a rewarding experience, join DCP's Food and Nutrition Initiative to play an integral role in improving food security and quality of life in our community.

The VISTA Food Security Coordinator will build capacity of DCPs food and nutrition initiatives by creating a strong network of providers-made up of Downeast Community Partners (DCP) employees, community agencies, first responders, and volunteers that will collaborate to provide food assistance and by establishing community gardens to support families and individuals in our communities that are experiencing poverty and food insecurity.

We are seeking a self-starter that is well organized, with skills in effective communication, teamwork, and network-building. You will be working with a compassionate grassroots team that has been working from the ground up to alleviate hunger and reduce the impact of poverty.

The Alfond Youth & Community Center (AYCC) is looking for an impassioned individual to join our team as the Workforce Ready Grant VISTA. As a part of our team, you will collect and analyze data on current community needs, research funding opportunities, and write grants that are focused on childcare, workforce readiness, and resource management, and opportunity.

The AYCC serves more than 8,000 children and families from 191 communities in central Maine. Created by the Waterville Boys & Girls Club, the Waterville YMCA, and the City of Waterville in 1997, the AYCC stands as the only successful collaboration of a Boys and Girls Club of America (BGCA) and YMCA in the United States. Currently AYCC is an approved CACFP sponsor to 3 afterschool sites in Waterville and 1 in Oakland, Skowhegan, Norridgewock, and Benton, with additional summer programs. Throughout the year AYCC also sponsors free holiday meal events for the community and during COVID AYCC gave out over 85,000 meals. AYCC also has a Farm to School grant that is focused on the development of a Garden to Table educational curriculum.

As the Workforce Ready Grant VISTA, you will also be a part of a VISTA cohort that spans the state of Maine: Ending Hunger Corps, a 25-member cohort model VISTA program sponsored by Maine's Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Forestry (DACF).

The Maine Credit Union League (MECUL) in Westbrook, ME, just outside of Portland, is seeking a well-rounded individual who is passionate about ending hunger to join its mission-driven team.

The Community Outreach and Development Coordinator VISTA will play a key role in MECUL's project to alleviate food insecurity and financial hardship in Maine through projects aligned with "Everyone at the Table: Maines Roadmap to End Hunger by 2030". The VISTA member will generate ideas and lead efforts to increase fundraising capabilities of Maine Credit Union Leagues long-standing Campaign for Ending Hunger. The member will also conduct research and create toolkits and resources to help build and encourage workplace programs that support workers and customers who are facing food insecurity and economic hardship by connecting them with resources. The VISTA member will engage the support of credit unions and their partners to promote and disseminate these resources and will provide training and implementation resources. The role requires a great balance between the creative (right-brain) and the analytical (left-brain) led by a people helping people philosophy, which the heart of credit unions.

The Cumberland County Food Security Council (CCFSC) works with community partners to initiate, strategize and innovate solutions to hunger by advocating, sharing information and resources, and taking collective action. CCFSC's focus is to build food security with economically disadvantaged people with limited access to healthy food.

The VISTA member at CCFSC will help connect Maine residents with local, culturally appropriate and nutritious foods through infrastructure building, increasing the capacity of local organizations, and collecting data for a report on food access disparities. The VISTA member at CCFSC will have the opportunity to be a part of Maine's historic plan to end hunger in the state by 2030, and will join a cohort of VISTAs across the state doing similar work with different organizations.

USDA research reports that 13.6 percent of Maine households are food insecure - a rate significantly higher than the national average of 11.7 percent. Additionally, in September of 2019 Maine ranked 16th in the nation for child food insecurity with one in five Maine kids food insecure and an 18 percent child poverty rate. This data does not account for disruptions in the food system by the pandemic.

Quality Housing Coalition is a housing nonprofit located in Portland, Maine and serving Cumberland, York, and Androscoggin counties. QHC's mission is to provide quality housing opportunities for all in need in Maine. QHC meets its mission by advocating for statewide policies to end homelessness and housing insecurity, and through Project HOME, a program that partners with landlords and housing readiness programs to remove barriers to applying to housing and providing year-long support for each tenant.

The VISTA member will be a part of the Project HOME Team that moves people experiencing homelessness from shelters to stable, affordable housing with housing subsidies and essential needs benefits, including food and health care. In 2022-2023, Project HOME's goal is to support 200 households and increase our year-long tenancy success rate from 97% to 98%. To meet this goal, the VISTA member will build the capacity of the Project HOME Team to support the tenant's needs, including accessing additional resources, and problem-solving issues that arise around the tenancy.

The VISTA applicant must have good communication skills and be comfortable working on a team to support Project HOME tenants, including working closely with tenants to provide available resources to meet their needs. The applicant will work well independently to create asset maps in each community and surveys for Project HOME partners. Fluency in French and/or Portuguese is preferred.

Surrounded by ponds, lakes and rivers and nestled in the beautiful western foothills of Norway, ME, at Alan Day Community Garden we believe that everyone should have access to nutritious foods. For over a decade we have worked to create local food access, provide produce and meals to families experiencing low income, and create an inclusive culture around growing food, teaching cooking skills and preparing nourishing meals with the community. Our youth leadership program provides students with valuable lifelong skills and our summer farmers' market brings fun, connection, and nourishment to our community.

Our VISTA service member will join our dynamic and hard-working organization as we work toward building a community food center and kitchen. They will need to be comfortable working with the public, friendly, welcoming and professional, organized and efficient, extremely adaptable and patient, willing to work with a wide range of people, and demonstrate support for diversity, equity, & inclusion. Our VISTA will enhance our existing programs while developing additional resources to meet the needs of families experiencing low income, grow leadership among our youth and community members by engaging them directly in growing and harvesting food, preparing meals, and serving the community. Our VISTA will also be adept with record-keeping, written & verbal communication, and completing time-sensitive tasks by the deadlines, including reports, grant application, newsletters, and social media updates. Our VISTA will have access to free seasonal produce, an extremely supportive community of volunteers, hands-on learning opportunities in gardening & carpentry, and flexibility around working onsite and offsite depending on season and needs of our organization.

For fifty years, Aroostook County Action Program, Inc. (ACAP) has provided the people of Aroostook County with services and resources that help individuals and families achieve greater economic independence in the areas of community health, early care and education, energy and housing, homelessness prevention and mitigation, and workforce development services. Annually, ACAP serves more than 14,000 of the 68,000 people living in our vast rural county. Food insecurity is an increasing challenge in our community, and we are looking for an innovative and energetic individual to join our team to address that challenge. The right individual will assist our team with a diverse array of tasks that collectively will make a powerful impact in our community.

Duties will include: Grant prospecting, writing, editing, and reporting; Coordinating activities with community partners to increase efficiencies; Recruiting, training and supervising volunteers. As a community action agency, we provide over 40 programs and services to low-income members of our community. It is our experience that while you are enrolled in this incredible program that, you would qualify for many of those programs including but not limited to our rental relief program and home energy assistance program. We love to connect members of our team with available services. You can learn more about our agency and the work we do by visiting www.acap-me.org or our Facebook page.