At a time when Grange membership has dwindled nationally, a resurgence of interest in local food and farming has attracted new members to the Halcyon Grange, including young farming families and their supporters. There has also been renewed community interest in the Grange Hall as a valued space for social, economic, and educational activities and interactions.
The Halcyon Grange of Blue Hill hosted a very enjoyable and well-attended Easter Dinner for the community on March 31, 2013. John Tyler kindly shared photos of the dinner that appear on this webpage.
According to the Halcyon Grange’s website: “The Halcyon Grange is well- positioned to revitalize its role as a vibrant community center and vehicle for the economic development of local food producers. The capital campaign proposes to realize this vision through a needed renovation of the Grange facility that will render it handicapped accessible, energy-efficient for year-round use, and more functional through an expansion of its community kitchen for both social and commercial uses.”
The Grange has a history of supporting the passage of progressive legislation that benefits agriculture and rural America. Local Granges can make decisions on legislative issues that may be independent of the Maine State Grange.
The Halcyon Grange #345 enthusiastically
voted to support legislation being considered in Augusta called LD 475 An Act to Increase Food Sovereignty in Communities. Halcyon Grange Master John Gandy sent the following letter to the clerk of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee:
Please find attached Halcyon Grange of Blue Hill’s Resolution For Food Sovereignty in support of LD-475. The members of the Blue Hill Grange feel strongly that individuals have the right to consume foods of their choice from sources of their choice and that government does not have the right to take that freedom from us. We value the wholesomeness of locally grown and produced food from our farm neighbors. Therefore, Halcyon Grange #345 of Blue Hill unanimously passed the attached resolution and authorized me as Master of the Grange to forward it to the Committee.
