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<p class="v1msonormal"><em><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">Please see below for an opportunity to participate in a brief local foods survey to help “grow” Farm to ECE here in Maine!<o:p></o:p></span></b></em></p>
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<p class="v1msonormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">Maine is participating in the
<strong><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">New England Feeding New England (NEFNE) <a href="https://nefoodsystemplanners.org/projects/local-food-counts-project/" target="_blank">Local Food Counts Survey Project</a></span></strong>, and we are inviting
all early childhood education centers to take part in <strong><span style="font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"><a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NElocalfoodcount" target="_blank">this survey</a>
</span></strong>by the end of January 2024.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="v1msonormal"><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">The NEFNE project is promoting the value of strong community and regional food and supporting a goal of achieving 30% regional food resiliency by 2030. </span></strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="v1msonormal"><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">We are asking all early childhood education centers in Maine to participate in the Local Food Counts Survey to help us determine how much of the food grown, raised,
harvested, or produced in New England was sold in this same region in 2022. This information will be used to track trends over time and to help organizations and public sector programs working to expand community and regional food value chains to understand
impacts.</span></strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">We are using <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NElocalfoodcount">
this online survey</a> to collect data on 2022 purchases of local and regional food products and beverages.</span></b>
<b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">We are asking people to submit their data by the end of January 2024.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="v1msonormal"><em><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">This project is managed by the
<a href="https://nefoodsystemplanners.org/about-us/" target="_blank">New England Food System Planners Partnership</a>. All information provided in the survey will remain confidential. No identifying information about your organization will be shared with any
entity or individual beyond the core research team. All purchase and sales figures provided will be anonymized and aggregated at the state level.</span></em><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="v1msonormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif">If you have questions about this survey or the project, please feel free to contact Chelsea Marshall
<a href="mailto:chelsea@mainefoodstrategy.org">chelsea@mainefoodstrategy.org</a> for more information.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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