Maine Agriculture in the Classroom (MAITC) is a grassroots program coordinated by the United States Department of Agriculture and housed at the Maine Department of Agriculture. With a goal of helping students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society, MAITC hopes that they will become citizens who support wise agricultural policies and local agriculture endeavors in the future.
MAITC is funded by the Maine Agricultural Specialty License plate, grants and private sponsors. In the past year, their programs impacted almost 200,000 Maine students. Grants were offered totalling $60,000 to educational programs in categories such as School Gardens and Greenhouses, Agricultural Awareness and Agricultural Leadership.
MAITC promotes the understanding of the food and fiber system in Maine and the nation, by providing information on agriculture to teachers, students, and interested citizens. MAITC also offers ReadMe Agriculture, where volunteers read and donate books about agriculture to PreK to 4th grade classrooms, a Summer Teachers Institute and Teacher of the Year award. The 2022 Teacher of the Year is Stacey Sanborn from Manchester Elementary School in Windham. MAITC also offers hundreds of resources for the classroom including lesson plans, books and teaching units on the website www.MaineAgintheClassroom.org. For more information, call 207.287.5522 or email: maitc@maine.gov.
