Gorham Edible Main Street
Brinn and Meghan are cousins and, they each had
different reasons for choosing their Silver Award project issue. Brinn
loves gardening and, Meghan had volunteered at her middle school’s
garden, harvesting the food for the local food pantry and school's
backpack program, and she wanted to get involved more with her
community. The focus of their project was to connect their town’s
rapidly growing community with its’ agricultural roots, enhance the
community’s interest in local food systems, and create more economic
development by creating vegetable and herb planter boxes. They
accomplished their goals by strategically placing 48 planter boxes
either at or near downtown businesses, creating free-for-the-taking
recipe cards with meal ideas for the produce that was growing in the
planters, and providing educational resources and opportunities for
the community on harvesting and growing the produce. The girls
measured their impact on a bi-weekly basis by talking with business
owners and by counting the number of recipe cards and produce that was
left. Brinn and Meghan worked with the Cumberland County Soil &
Water Conservation District, the Gorham Village Alliance, and local
Girl Scouts to educate them on their project as well as to sustain it.
The Gorham Village Alliance will recruit volunteers from the Rec
Department to assist with planting the planter boxes in 2021. Brinn
and Meghan worked with local community outlets to educate and inspire
others about their project. They received many comments from community
members regarding their enjoyment of harvesting the produce and
learning how to plant vegetables and herbs. Meghan said that “The
whole project was based on community and it had a BIG impact. I met so
many different people working on this project and realized how
important community is to everyone.”
Silver Award Girl Scouts, Meghan & Brinn
19 Jun 2021
