Maine’s Indigenous, Black and other communities of color are disproportionately impacted by poverty and food insecurity. While approximately 15 percent of white children were recorded as living in poverty in 2018, the rate was over 40 percent for Wabanaki children and over 53 percent for Black or African American children. Compounding this issue is financial and structural inequities that have added barriers for BIPOC communities to access and purchase land that would otherwise provide opportunities for revenue generation and/or food access. BIPOC people make up approximatel 8-9% of the population but own just 1% of farms in the state. This creates a situation where communities most impacted by poverty and food insecurity have the least ability to have secure land tenure to build a livlihood and/or food self-sufficiency. Lewiston-Auburn is a unique community in Maine, with a demographic profile distinct from much of the rest of the rural state which is more than 95% white. In contrast, over 22% of Lewiston’s population are people of color and 15% are refugee/immigrants and in Auburn, 14.6% of its 24,061 residents are people of color. Similar to the state’s profile, a disproportionate amount of communities of color in Lewiston Auburn experience poverty and food insecurity. Many of the New African American communities residing in Lewiston Auburn have longheld agricultural traditions. For the last twenty years collaborative efforts between New American community leaders, community advocates, and non-profits service agencies have helped to connect communities to land, fostering the ability to farm at a market and subsistence level. Recent efforts have helped groups such as the Somali Bantu Community Association (SBCA) and New Roots Cooperative to more permanently secure land ensuring a future source of food self sufficiency for their communities, cultivation of livlihood, preservation of agricultural heritage, and a source of local food for the broader community. This work, has only begun in earnest in Lewiston Auburn and more is needed to both reduce the impact of hunger and ensure justice and equity are re-introduced int to land access efforts. In particular, more energy and effort is needed towards reparations for land theft and displacement of Wabanaki people and centuries old marginalization and displacement of Black American communities in Maine.