Ingredients
Harpswell Coastal Academy
Old Harpswell School House
Two Coves Farm
The School
House Café
• Community Supported Restaturant serving simple, locally sourced
breakfast and lunches, L3C structure
• functions as a gathering spot for the community
• provides healthy lunch, breakfast, and snacks to HCA
• entrepreneurship incubator and internship site for HCA
• provides part-time jobs/flexible workforce for the Café.
Maine Farmland Trust “Forever Farm” operated by Joe and Laura
Grady along with their three children, Yvette, Muriel, and little Joe.
• 88 acres of forest and pasture
• focus on grass production and environmental sustainability.
• portable infrastructure and fencing to move animals in a managed
grazing system
• healthy and happy animals on the most vibrant and diverse pastures
• CSA for beef, pork, lamb, poultry and eggs
• Farm/food systems partner for Harpswell Coastal Academy
Our Classrooms Maine’s shorelines, working
waterfronts, forests, and farms.
Our Partners Maine’s educators, entrepreneurs,
and community organizations.
Our Promise Citizen-scholars dedicated to Maine’s
future.
• Public charter school - open to all students by lottery
• Initiated by Town citizens concerned with disengaged youth
• Re-purposes recently closed West Harpswell Elementary
School
• Potential Fiscal Agent for L3C
Our Classrooms Maine’s shorelines, working waterfronts, forests,
and farms.
Our Partners Maine’s educators, entrepreneurs, and community
organizations.
Our Promise Citizen-scholars dedicated to Maine’s future.
• Place-based, project-based curriculum
• Small by design, no students lost in the crowd
• Student work/internship/service requirement
• Curriculum engages and anchors the community in
preserving its coastal heritage
• One-room school house serving Harpswell Neck up to 1950s
• Located at busiest intersection in Harpswell
• Seasonally profitable Café Mojo for past several years
• Owner/Landlord supportive of HCA
• Kitchen equipment and restaurant furnishings available
• Entrepeneur/Visionary/Local Food Genius
• Seed/Start-up Capital
• Supply Chain Partnerships (Crown O’Maine, Northern Girl,
Somerset Grist Mill…)
• Technical Assistance/Start-up Coach
• Foundation Support/Program Related Investment
Payback on Investment, Part 1
• By year Four, 280 students from age 11-19 eat two healthy,
locally sourced meals each day
• Replicable, research-based model for locally-sourced school
nutrition program
• Each year, 40 new students engaged in 7-year cycle of studying,
planning, growing, processing, and serving enough food to feed
themselves
Payback on Investment, Part II
• $200–500k in sustainable
development
• 3-8 FTE food/farm
local supply chain economic
sector jobs (with benefits)
• Midcoast farms and suppliers made more viable by reliable,
predictable market for portion of annual output