Outreach
3rd Thursday Donation Day
Every 3rd Thursday the Belfast Co-op donates 1% of sales to a nonprofit organization whose work improves local resilience. A guiding principle of our community-owned business is to improve the sustainability of our community.
2012 Recipients
December - Belfast Community TV
November - Island Institute - membership-based community development organization focusing on the Gulf of Maine, particularly the fifteen year-round island communities off the Maine coast.
October - Howard Bowers Fund - promoting and developing consumer-owned food cooperatives and consumer cooperative education, to encourage and train people to pursue careers in the management of consumer-owned food cooperatives, and to provide education programs for staff, board, and managers of consumer cooperatives.
September - Friends of Midcoast Maine - helping communities identify and save what is valued, while promoting change in a way that serves us now and is sustainable for generations to come.
August - Environmental Health Strategy Center - promoting human health and safer chemicals in a sustainable economy.
July - Midcoast Maine Fishing Heritage Alliance - helping to preserve the fishing way of life in Midcoast Maine.
June - Pollinator Partnership - promoting the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research.
May - Belfast Garden Club - committed to civic beautification.
April - Belfast Farmers' Market - providing local small growers and craftsmen with an outlet for the sale of fresh picked produce and related agricultural products.
March - Come Boating - providing free community rows and sails and a youth rowing program.
February - Cooperative Maine - committed to increased cooperative development in Maine.
January - Waldo County Family to Family Fund - supporting the financial needs of one Waldo County family or individual in temporary crisis due to illness or tragedy.
2011 Recipients
December - Waldo CAP Fuel Assistance - helping eligible low-income Waldo County households pay a portion of their home energy or heating bills.
November - Belfast Soup Kitchen - Waldo County's only soup kitchen, serving lunch Monday through Friday.
October - Natural Resources Council of Maine - protecting, restoring, and conserving Maine's environment, now and for future generations.
September - Belfast Dance Studio Children's Scholarship - providing partial to full scholarship assistance for midcoast children who wish to take Studio classes.
August - Creative Learning and Performance, The Playhouse - sponsoring the children's theater program at the Playhouse in Belfast.
July - Big Brothers Big Sisters of Midcoast Maine - providing children in Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot and Waldo Counties facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported, 1-to-1 relationships that change lives for the better, forever.
June - Special Olympics Maine - providing year-round sports training and athletic competition in Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
May - Belfast Summer Nights - providing free, live, outdoor music performances highlighting local talent at three downtown locations on Thurs nights during the summer months.
April - Coastal Mountains Land Trust - permanently conserving land to benefit the natural and human communities of western Penobscot Bay.
March - Cultivating Community - strengthening communities by growing food, preparing youth leaders and new farmers, and promoting social and environmental justice.
February - Restorative Justice Project of the Midcoast - facilitating compassionate responses to crime and wrongdoing that fosters support and healing for the victim; accountability, rehabilitation and reintegration of the offender; and renewal and safety for the community.
January - Last Chance Ranch Maine - caring for forgotten horses, helping horse owners experiencing financial difficulties care for their horses.
2010 Recipients
December - Heifer International; New Roots In America (Lewiston, Maine) - helping the immigrant Somali community adapt to farming in Maine.
November - Newforest Institute - dedicated to the restoration of mutually sustaining relationships
between people and the land.
October - Waterfall Arts - creating community in harmony with nature through the transformative power of the arts.
September - Tenth Life Maine - cat rescue organization operating in and around Waldo County, Maine.
August - Avian Haven - wild bird rehabilitation center dedicated to the return of injured and orphaned wild birds of all species to natural roles in the wild.
July - Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County - providing non-medical support for the terminally ill, their families and to the bereaved in the community.
June - Tanglewood 4-H Camp & Learning Center - getting the people of Maine outdoors and teaching them how we can all be respectful protectors of the Earth.
May - Maine Farmland Trust - protecting and preserving Maine‚s farmland, keeping agricultural lands working and supporting the future of farming in Maine.
April - Troy Howard MS Garden Project - growing empowered-academically successful young people who integrate sustainability into their lives by producing and learning to satisfy their needs locally.
