Cultural Preservation
Roots & Rhythm
Preserving Culture. Connecting Generations. Building Belonging.
Roots & Rhythm is FFA’s cultural preservation initiative, bringing together youth, families, elders, artists, and community leaders from Maine’s immigrant and African Diaspora communities. Through storytelling, food, art, and shared experiences, we create opportunities for culture to be celebrated, documented, and passed to future generations.
Roots & Rhythm Experiences Include:
Fables de Chez Nous — Oral storytelling, cultural identity, art, and intergenerational learning.
Cultural Food From Home — Families sharing traditional foods, recipes, and the stories behind them.
Soccer Saturdays — Youth-centered recreation that builds cross-cultural connection, community, and belonging.
Together, these experiences are building a living cultural hub where traditions are shared today and preserved for tomorrow.
Fables de Chez Nous
Our Stories. Our Culture. Our Community.
Fables de Chez Nous creates opportunities for immigrant and African Diaspora families to preserve culture, strengthen connections across generations, and celebrate the traditions that make our communities feel like home.
Through storytelling, food, art, recreation and, shared experience, Food for All Services is creating spaces where young people can learn from their communities while elders, parents artists, and cultural leaders have opportunities to pass knowledge forward.
Our Impact So Far
218 families reached through 5 cultural gatherings
Each gathering creates an opportunity for families to experience culture together - from oral storytelling and creative activities to food, games, and community connection.
Hear the Story
Experience the Culture
Create Together
Carry It Forward
Our Experiences
Soccer Saturdays
Soccer Saturdays brought immigrant and multicultural youth together for 8 Saturdays of free summer programming centered on soccer, mentorship, friendship, and belonging.
Over the summer, 130 children participated, creating connections across cultures while enjoying a safe and welcoming environment to play and grow.
Food remained an important part of the experience. Participating youth also left with food to bring home to their families, connection recreation with FFA’s larger commitment to nourishing and supporting the whole family.
8 Saturdays
130 Youth
Food for Support for Families
5 Family Stories Documented
Family Kitchen
Preserving Culture
Traditions
Stories
Lived Experiences
Cultural Food From Home
Some of our most important cultural stories begin at home.
Through Cultural Food From Home, families prepared meaningful dishes in their own kitchens and shared the traditions, memories, and cultural knowledge connected to those foods.
FFA documented 5 family food stories through video, creating a growing record of recipes and traditions that can be shared with younger generations and the wider community.
These videos remind us that a recipe is more than a list of ingredients - it can carry memories of family, migration, celebration, and home.
A Living Cultural Advice
These experiences are part of FFA’s larger effort to ensure that the stories, traditions, goods, and lived experiences of Maine’s immigrant communities are not lost.
Every story recorded, recipe shared, cultural gathering held, and connection create contributes to a growing community archive - one built with the community, for the community, and for future generations.
2026
Maine
“Together, we keep our stories alive and our community strong”
-Khadija Ahmed