5 Ways You Can Help Your Community With Food

The current pandemic has exacerbated inequalities across the board, and the unfortunate truth is that it looks like we'll have to deal with this situation for longer than expected. As such, organizations like the Vermont Community Foundation are spearheading campaigns to serve those who are in extreme need at this time, with projects ranging from supporting small businesses to expanding internet access to poorly-serviced areas.

Community organizations are not just the only people who can help out—everyday volunteers can make huge impacts in their own communities. And because everyone needs food to survive, addressing this need is the perfect way for people to get involved. Keep reading below for five ways you can help serve your community through food.

Run food drives

Organizing a food drive is one of the most meaningful things you can do at this time. You can choose to partner with local vendors who may want to donate some of their produce or food items, but you can also just reach out to fellow neighbors and see if they'd like to pitch in and buy some groceries for those in need. These food drives can include some fresh produce, canned goods, and staples like bread or rice. From there, you can spend a day or two packing care boxes that you can then distribute to families across the area.

Volunteer at food banks

You might not have enough time to organize your own food drive, so it's worth talking to your local food banks and seeing if they need your help. See if you can carve out a bit of time per week to volunteer. Whether it's helping sort out food or delivering the items to people in need, it's important to find out ways that you can help out on a regular basis. After all, volunteering is all about consistency.

Soup kitchens

Once you get enough volunteers to both source groceries and prepare meals, organizing a soup kitchen should be relatively easy. The key to feeding lots of people great food is relying on the right equipment like rice cookers: quality makers are extremely versatile, as is rice itself. Today's rice cookers can also keep your food warm for long stretches of time, allowing you to serve more people. From rice pudding to home-cooked meals on top of rice, these filling dishes will be more than appreciated by those in need.

Community gardens

People are looking for new hobbies to try out during quarantine, so why not try urban farming? A lot of love and labor goes into growing the produce we enjoy, and establishing urban farms allows you to see just how much work goes into growing crops. Again, partnering with local farmers also shows them that you value their work and are interested in finding ways that you can help them out too.

Patronizing local restaurants

A report by WCAX-TV notes that local restaurants getting ready to open up and accept patrons again, but these efforts will only be successful if there are customers to patronize them in the first place. If you're unwilling to risk going outside and dining in, lots of restaurants are also opening up takeaway services that you can also avail of. Showing continued support for local restaurants will encourage even more of them to open up again.

Food insecurity is a problem that's been around even prior to the pandemic, so it's no surprise that families who were having a hard time before are struggling even more now. Trying out any of these five solutions can help address this problem in a community-centered way. Food is the way to the heart, and so it's also a way to extend your care to people in need.

Thank you to our guest writer.

Written by: Jolie Baylin

Written for: foodconnects.org

Producer Spotlight: Mi Tierra Tortillas

Have you ever had one of those perfectly warmed corn tortillas? Full of flavor? We have and they’re from Mi Tierra Tortillas. Co-owners, Jorge Sosa and Michael Docter, met an interesting way: Michael, a farmer, was a patron at the Mi Tierra restaurant in Hadley, MA that Jorge and Dora ran. Jorge and Michael came together in 2013 to bring high-quality tortillas that used fresh, local corn to the community. Michael took some time to share more about the business with us. Read more!

What makes your produce/products unique?

We bake our tortillas fresh from local and organic corn that is raised here in the Connecticut River Valley. We utilize the ancient Nixtamalization technique that has been used by the early inhabitants of North and Central America for the last few thousand years. Our recipe has been in Dora and Jorge's family for generations.

What is your favorite recipe to eat with your tortillas? Anything out of the ordinary?

At our house, we put just about anything on a tortilla and call it "Flex-Mex". Butternut squash, sauteed mushrooms, quick-pickled daikon radish. If there is something good in the fridge, it is going to be better on a toasted tortilla. Here is my son Jesse Docter's Chicken Tinga recipe. It's incredible!

Why is selling locally and the local food movement is important to you?

I started the Food Bank Farm in 1990. Since that time, the Hadley farm has donated over 200,000 lbs of organic produce to those in need every year. By localizing the food supply, we help make sure that everybody has access to good, healthy food. Local food also reduces our carbon footprint because it uses only a fraction of the fuel compared to the global food supply chain.

How does working with Food Connects help your business?

Food Connects has been an incredible partner by helping us find customers that love good tortillas and want to support local businesses. Food Connects has gone above and beyond to mesh their distribution system so that customers can get fresh tortillas on the day they are baked. The fact that the Vermont Food Bank is right next door to Food Connects means we can fulfill our mission of getting food to those in need at the same time.

Food Connects Builds Food Security Alongside Economic Recovery and Resiliency

Food Connects continues to grow despite COVID-19 food supply chain disruption, proving the value of local food systems for resiliency and economic recovery.

Food Connects raised over $700,000 in grants over the last six months to increase community food security, allowing the organization to step into a larger leadership role in the regional food economy. We saw our food sales more than double since the pandemic struck, highlighting the rising demand for fresh, local food.

A combination of federal, private foundation, and corporate grants will add capacity to Food Connects’ local food distribution system. These projects are critical for food security and economic recovery. The most recent, $184,250 from the Northern Borders Regional Commission, will fund further infrastructure development—including cold storage, warehouse equipment, and a new refrigerated vehicle. These pieces are essential to our Food Hub’s ability to increase the capacity of 90 farms and food producers, enable producers to reach new markets within and outside of Vermont, and better address food insecurity in the region.

Current fleet of 3 vehicles.

Over 10 other private and corporate grants totaling over $400,000, from organizations including the Vermont Community Foundation and New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, helped Food Connects cover the cost of a new walk-in cooler, a fourth refrigerated truck, and three new staff members—growing the organization’s capacity to support local farmers and food producers.

Food Connects currently works with over 90 farms and food producers and over 135 wholesale customers. Our reach extends beyond the Brattleboro community, into the Keene and Peterborough areas of New Hampshire, the Bennington region, and the Upper and Pioneer Valleys, as well as to similar food hubs around New England. As a social enterprise, Food Connects focuses on making it easier for local food businesses to buy wholesale from local farms and food producers and on building shorter, more community-based supply chains that are less reliant on national or global networks and food suppliers. 

The funding from these generous organizations couldn’t have come at a better time. When the conventional national and international food supply chain struggled with disruptions and shortages that left many store shelves empty, Food Connects stepped in to offer our local, rural communities weekly deliveries of foods produced in our little slice of New England.

Food Connects saw its sales double since the pandemic hit and keeping up with the increasingly higher demand for local food requires more internal resources and improved infrastructure. “We are reaching our 2021 sales goals in 2020 and it has been a challenge to keep up with staffing, systems, and infrastructure needs,” says Executive Director and Founder Richard Berkfield. “We realize we are very privileged to have these problems of rapid growth while so many businesses are struggling or closing.”

The combination of grant funds allows us to hire three new positions—a Food Hub Operations Coordinator, Sales Associate, and Local Food Procurement Coordinator. This new capacity will improve internal operations to more efficiently serve more local farmers and food producers and develop new markets to a larger geographic area. With the addition of these new employees, the Food Connects team will have quadrupled in size in the past two years.

“It's a strange feeling to see all this growth during such a challenging time,” says Berkfield. “It's become clear that what we do really matters in response to supply chain disruption, food security, and building economic resilience and recovery. We are all feeling very proud of our work and grateful to be doing it, which lessens the emotional strain of day-to-day COVID-19 reality and future uncertainty.”  

Food Connects Fresh Bites: September 2020

September Newsletter

Our New Look

Producer Highlight: Grateful Greens

Updated Delivery Schedule

Taste of Food Connects

Who Grows Our Food: A Conversation with Police

Updated Delivery Schedule

As you may remember, earlier this year Food Connects was running two regular order cycles each week. When the pandemic struck, we narrowed that down to one cycle per week, for both safety and operational reasons.

Although the future is still unknowable, we have emerged from the weeds somewhat, and customer demand has convinced us that it’s time to reinstate the second cycle.

Please note: These changes apply to main route customers only. If you are unsure whether or not you qualify, please reach out to us!

Beginning this Friday, 8/14: Regular Weekly Friday Deliveries!

For our central Windham and Cheshire county customers we will run Wednesday and Friday deliveries on a trial basis for the next few months. In the late fall we will evaluate the results and determine whether it’s worth continuing through the winter.

By offering customers more options to get food for the week we hope to be able to increase overall sales of local food to current customers and create more opportunities for us to build customer bases in new markets like the Pioneer Valley.

Our two weekly cycles will look like this:

Delivery Day: Wednesday Order Deadline: Monday, 10 am

Delivery Day: Friday Order Deadline: Wednesday, 10 am

EXCEPTIONS: 

1. Mi Tierra Tortillas: Tortillas will be available for delivery only on Wednesdays.

2. Bread: Bread orders are still due Friday at 11 am and bread will be available for delivery only on Wednesdays.

3. Specialty cheeses: Cheese special orders will remain on a biweekly cycle, with orders due every other Tuesday at 10 am.

We’re excited about this opportunity to bring you additional fresh, local food on a more frequent basis! If you have any questions about this change, please reply to us at this email, or write Beth and Alex at sales@foodconnects.org

Thank you!

Producer Spotlight: Grateful Greens

Meet one of our newest producers—Grateful Greens! Based in Brattleboro, VT, Grateful Greens is a new business that approaches farming differently. With an all-indoor facility and highly nutrient-rich soil, their greens are out of this world and will be accessible year-round. They are developing their systems to be as self-sufficient as possible and to have the largest positive environmental impact by using solar, energy-efficient GREE heat pumps for climate control, developing a rainwater catchment system to water the plants they grow, using plant-based PLA for all of their packaging, and looking to improve

Owner James Mayer took some time to share about this new business and what makes them stand out!

What makes your produce unique? Grateful Greens uses creative, low impact, indoor farming technology that utilizes solar, rainwater, eco-friendly systems, and Love. We grow in a nutrient-rich organic soil mix with organic seed from High Mowing Seeds to grow healthy, tasty, and extraordinarily sustainable crops, all year long.

What is your favorite product? Our Sunflower Greens! This is the first crop we're growing. The health benefits of sunflower greens are amazing. They're super nutrient-dense, and their flavor and appearance are so unique and pleasant!

Why is selling locally and the local food movement important to you? Strengthening the localization of our food systems is the main purpose of Grateful Greens! It is clear to us that local and proper food production and distribution are vitally important to the health of our selves, our local economies, and the Earth! Indoor farming is a valuable growing technique that can help us to be totally self-sufficient with our food needs, especially in the winter.

How does working with Food Connects help your business and what are you excited about in this new partnership? Partnering with Food Connects was a great accomplishment for Grateful Greens! The work that Food Connects does is so valuable to us all right now, such as their leadership in the Farm to School movement, their immense support of local food producers, and their curbside ordering program. Their vision for "healthy families, thriving farms, and connected communities" aligns greatly with the purpose of Grateful Greens to empower the food system of the Northeast to become healthier and self-sufficient, year-round. Partnering has given us a great opportunity to offer our Sunflower Greens to many retail and food service organizations in New England. I am especially excited to provide our nourishing greens to our schools in the region! Everyone at Food Connects is so kind and helpful and it's clear that they want to help us succeed.

What inspired you to start Grateful Greens? What are some of your hopes for the future? I have always been entrepreneurial and a lover of nature at heart. Before I founded Grateful Greens, I was working on a project that made me money and was helping others but did not have the immense potential impact that I knew I wanted to make. I got the initial inspiration from a YouTube video about indoor farming. Something instantly clicked inside me and I felt "This is it!" Since then, the vision has expanded greatly: from growing some greens in my bedroom closet, to a project that has the support of a very talented team of Vermont innovators (Delta Vermont) and is on the path of providing immense value to the food system and health of the Northeast. My biggest hope for this project is to greatly increase the self-sufficiency and health of the Northeast food system and its people.

Any events coming up or fun facts about your business/products? We are talking with the arts organization Epsilon Spires to collaborate on offering events at their venue, where leaders in the local food movement can visit to educate and provoke thoughts and discussion around improving our food systems, as well as empowering ourselves and communities. We are also composting all the post-harvest root, stem, and used soil material to be reused in community projects that will hopefully unite, heal, and feed our communities. We have no solid plans yet, but I am hoping to create some type of permaculture farm/garden or similar projects in Brattleboro and surrounding areas. If an organization or individual has any ideas or would like to collaborate, please contact us!

How are you responding to the COVID-19 Crisis? We are participating in the CARES Act's "Everyone Eats" program, donating to the Vermont Foodbank regularly, and hope to supply Sunflower Greens for the Farmers To Families Food Box program.

Anything else you would like to share? We will be expanding soon (creating another location) to grow several other crops to be locally available year-round. Let us know what crops you'd like to be locally available and fresh year-round!

Who Grows Our Food: A Conversation with Police

11.3% of farmwork in Vermont is accomplished by seasonal H-2A Temporary Visa farmworkers, a majority of whom are Jamaican—an estimated 400 individuals. Established in 1986 as part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, the H-2A Visa Program allows agricultural businesses in the U.S. to hire temporary foreign workers for seasonal positions that they would have otherwise been unable to fill with domestic workers. 

It's summer in Vermont amidst a global pandemic but that hasn’t stopped folks from visiting their favorite farmstands and food co-ops to purchase local, seasonal produce they’ve waited all winter for. Armed with masks and hand sanitizer they peruse aisles of berries, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and greens—thankful for the bountiful harvest and those who are growing it. Who is growing our food? As part of Food Connects’ series highlighting our local food chain and those that make it possible, we sat down with Police, Harlow Farm’s dock master and local celebrity, to learn more about his experience living and working in Vermont as part of the H-2A temporary Visa program. 

Police is a yard-name, or nickname, for Gerald, who previously worked in Jamaica as a policeman, and has been making the trip from Jamaica to the United States on an H-2A Visa for over 30 years. When he’s back home in Jamaica, Police and his wife operate a shop where they sell bulk retail food items like flour, sugar, and cornmeal in addition to drinks and snacks, selling “Every likkle ting” says Police. 

Vermont farm workers in the H-2A Visa program cultivate the fields every day, rain or shine, helping to grow and harvest the produce we Vermonters take so much pride in. Harlow Farm, Dutton Farm, Green Mountain Orchards, and Scott Farm are a few of the local growers whose operations rely on Jamaican H-2A farm workers. The workers are appreciative and grateful to be here, to work hard, and to be able to build opportunities for loved ones back home—especially during a global pandemic. Many of Harlow’s workers have been making the annual trip for decades. According to Police “it’s just an every year routine—it's normal.” Just like farming it’s a seasonal cycle, they leave Jamaica in May, stay the summer in Vermont until the field’s reaping has slowed, and then travel back to Jamaica in October or November. A cycle that is undervalued by the current administration, which deemed H-2A Visa holders as essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic while working to reduce their hourly wages. 

Jamaicans on an H-2A Visa have a chance to work for an hourly wage that is not accessible in Jamaica. Reliable, well-paid work in Jamaica is like finding a needle in a haystack so the opportunity to work in the U.S. for half a year allows these workers to “make life much faster. It's like more easier and faster once you come here, that is if you put that hard-earned dollar to use,” says Police. A season’s wage could go towards building or buying a house, paying expensive school fees for children, or saving money for the future—something a majority of Jamaicans are unable to do. “The wages can’t balance (in Jamaica), sometimes your bills more than your wages… it’s a worldwide cry you know,” he adds. 

When asked if his wife was nervous about him traveling and working in the U.S. during the time of COVID-19, Police says, “well on this side (I feel safe)… I would say the people in Vermont are more cautious.” Back in early May, seventeen Jamaicans began their annual journey from Kingston, Jamaica to Harlow Farm in Westminster VT, a small portion of the ~4,600 H-2A Visa holding Jamaicans who travel to farms across the U.S. every year. Only this time, amid the global lockdown on international transportation, they boarded a plane chartered by the Department of Agriculture to ensure farms received crucial labor within the time-sensitive windows of agricultural production. 

For Police and his coworkers, this journey included three flights and a bus to reach their final destination. What sounds like a long trip, especially when wearing masks to protect against COVID-19, is quite short when compared to what the journey looked like 30 years ago. When Police made his first trip to the U.S. as part of the Seasonal Farm Workers Program, it was a three-day road trip via Greyhound Bus from Fort Lauderdale to Maine where he spent several years working on apple orchards before transitioning to vegetable production in Vermont. 

This long road trip showed Police and other H-2A workers at the time the vastness of America. When asked about his first impression of the U.S. Police says, “It was like in the night when I get here and get on the Greyhound bus down in Florida... but in the morning when it start to bright and the place light up I think wow, this is America that people always longin and crave to come? Cause we were on the highway.” When asked what he expected, he continues, “Well, pretty pretty pretty place with less… we call it woodland back in Jamaica. We left bushes then and mountains and all that stuff… We try and tell them (young Jamaican farm workers) that, they can't know America like we do cause you just take a plane and take another plane but you don't stop at the airport, you just take another plane. And then you come to Bradley and drive come up, you know, so it's not seeing America like how we did.”

Rural Vermont is similar to the Jamaican countryside in its slower pace and rich green landscape. The farming, on the other hand, is quite different, with a majority of Jamaican farms being two and a half acres oftentimes situated on steep hillsides. Jamaican farmers rely on manual labor and hand tools such as forks and machetes to make the most of the land available. Police and I joked about attempting to drive the Harlow Farm tractors on Jamaican hillside farms, where they’d likely topple off the steep slope. Along with the differences in landscapes and tools, Jamaicans working in Vermont are exposed to many different crops; asparagus, lacinato kale, parsnips, and collards are unavailable from local street vendors and markets where most people do their shopping in Jamaica. The differences don’t stop there, “in Jamaica,” Police shares, “they don’t really farm like out of book like how they do here out of book… they do it like back in the days, like the Haitian stuff.” Not to say that Jamaican agriculture isn’t advancing, as an island in the Caribbean much of their agricultural focus is aimed on sustainable practices to deal with drought, crop blights, and effects of climate change.

What about life for Jamaican farm workers when they’re off the clock? In Jamaica, there are shops dotted across every community where music blasts all hours of the day, and “in the night people party,” Police shares with a smile. A stark contrast to the quiet nights in Vermont. When asked if the men at Harlow Farm missed the vibrant nightlife culture back home Police answers, “I don’t really believe so a hundred percent because you know they're working and that’s the best part of it, they're working… It's not home away from home, but you just have to make yourself comfortable. Work, come from work maybe cook and catch a shower,” then wake up and do it all over again. 

Jamaicans in the US on an H-2A Visa sacrifice time with loved ones back home, a country that’s just a tiny dot on the map but known across the world for its music and culture, to contribute to our local food system. When asked how Vermonters can support the Jamaican farm worker community Police responds, “So spread the word! They have been mingling with us over the years, so I guess they’re supposed to know what Jamaican culture is like… we don’t want no one to feel uncomfortable”.

As we enjoy the Vermont summer for all its worth, remember that the food you’re sharing with your family was grown with love by people working to take care of their families too. How can we actively support and engage with all parts of our community during the new normal of social distancing? Although unable to gather the way we normally would, we can show our appreciation and support by engaging with Jamaicans when we see them, proudly embracing them as a part of our community, and taking the time to learn about their culture. As always, one of the most important aspects of community engagement is leveraging our voice and right to vote, keeping updated on laws related to H-2A Visas, and choosing to support farm workers. 

Mary Bilecki is an Evacuated Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. Before being evacuated due to COVID-19 in March, halfway through her two year service in Jamaica, she had been working with coffee farmers in Cascade, a community nestled in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica within the parish of Portland. Mary joined the Food Connects’ Food Hub team over the summer to help bring local food from Harlow Farm and other local food businesses to the community.

August 2020 Food Hub Flyer

August 2020 Food Hub Flyer

Producer Spotlight: Scott Farm Orchard

If you’re traveling along Kipling Road in Dummerston, VT you may happen upon Scott Farm Orchard. The picturesque views of the orchard and farm buildings seem to take you back in time. And rightfully so. Scott Farm is owned by the Landmark Trust USA and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places—farmers have actively farmed the land there since 1791. We chatted with Simon Renault, Scott Farm Orchard’s new General Manager, who was very excited to share with us what’s been happening on the farm this season.

If you didn’t already know, the orchard boasts 130 different varieties of heirloom apples. It is incredible to imagine 130 different types of apples when our typical grocery stores may only carry up to 15 varieties! They also grow all kinds of interesting fruits like gooseberries, pawpaws, persimmons, delicious Japanese plums, peaches, pears, medlars—you name it! Their dedication to biodiversity and care for these heirloom varieties makes them stand apart.

And we can’t imagine having to pick a favorite, either for cooking or eating! “Calville Blanc is a favorite cooking apple, made famous by Julia Child's who recommended it in her Tarte Tatin (a french apple tart),” says Simon. “Reinne de Reinette is also a favorite. The delights of a Blue Pearmain were described with such poetry by Thoreau. Black Oxford is an old Maine heirloom with a mild flavor, hard as rock which helps it store well; its flavors enhance over the winter. “ There are just too many to choose from!

And we know that our community loves their heirloom products. “More than 80% of our crop stays with a 75 miles radius,'“ says Simon. “Scott Farm has a deep commitment to our local community. Providing our neighbors with healthy fruit is our main concern and motivation. Food Connects helps us by distributing some of our fruit and getting us in touch with many local institutions with whom we do not already have a working relationship.”

With new leadership, the farm is focusing on a few new initiatives. “One of the very interesting things we have been working on is taking a closer look at is the antioxidant properties of heirloom apples. Apples have been found to have very strong antioxidant activity, inhibit cancer cell proliferation, decrease lipid oxidation, and lower cholesterol. Apples contain a variety of phytochemicals, including quercetin, catechin, phloridzin and chlorogenic acid, all of which are strong antioxidants. We have sent some of our oldest heirloom apples to labs to try to show the particular health properties of some of our apples. Particularly in this time of health crisis, it is very relevant for us to take a health lens on the work we do and consider that our number one priority.”

Not only are they expanding on their research efforts but their farm store is growing as well. “Our Farm Market has a much wider range of products this year. The current COVID-19 crisis pushed us to understand our market as a real service to our local community and we are delighted to be meeting that need.” Scott Farm Orchard, like many other farms we work with at Food Connects, is responding to the community need and demand for fresh, local food.

And they expanded their fall fruit CSA offering. “For 13 weeks, from Labor Day to Thanksgiving, CSA members will go home with a half peck of heirloom apples and other fruits. Every week they get to discover 2 different varieties of heirloom apples. Picking up a basket directly from the orchard (or at our other two pick up locations in Brattleboro and Putney) is a great way for people to shop for healthy nutritious food while staying safe.”

Scott Farm Orchard Is participating in Dig In Vermont’s Open Farm Week. Join them on August 13 and 15 for a virtual Hard Cider Tasting They are partnering with Eden Cider, a cidery based in Newport, Vermont that gets a lot of heirloom apples from us to make its harvest artisanal ciders.

So how do you do a virtual tasting? The way it works is that guests order a tasting kit from Eden Specialty Ciders (3 375ml bottles and a Scott farm glass) on their website and register for the tasting, then a zoom link will be sent via email. They encourage people to invite some friends or family and make it an event. The tasting will be guided by Eleanore, owner of Eden Specialty Ciders. Tastings include their dry cider (Brut Nature), an ice cider, and Siren Song Demi-sec. It promises to be really fun and a great voyage into the world of hard cider, for both the novice and the connoisseur.

Introducing Our Cheese Catalog

Our Food Hub team works hard to bring you a wide variety of delicious, local food. And what is one this New England is known for? Dairy! So check out our brand new cheese catalog highlighting delicious products made by seven different producers in Vermont and Massachusetts!

July 2020 Food Hub Flyer

July 2020 Food Hub Flyer

Producer Spotlight: Grafton Village Cheese

Nestled in the quiet towns of Grafton and Brattleboro, Vermont, Grafton Village Cheese is a longstanding business within our community. Founded in 1892 by a cooperative of dairy farmers as a means to utilize surplus raw milk, Grafton Village Cheese remains a vital part of Vermont’s dairy industry. President and CEO, Ruth Anne Flore, took some time to answer our questions and teach us more about this great local business.

What makes your products unique? 

Grafton Village Cheese is considered one of a handful of legacy cheese companies in the country. Grafton never wavered from its handmade, small batch production and its commitment to producing a traditional New England style cheddar; a cheddar with "bite." Our flavor profile remains distinctive. All of our milk comes from Vermont family farms. 

What is your favorite product? 

Tough question...I love our 1 and 2 year-aged cheddars for their versatility and Grafton's signature "bite." For grilled cheese sandwiches, mac 'n cheese dishes, burgers… the Truffle cheddar or Smoked Chili cheddar absolutely elevate the experience! Our cave-aged cheeses, Clothbound, Shepsog (mixed milk - cow & sheep), and Bear Hill (washed rind 100% sheep's milk), are incredibly special and shine on any cheeseboard. 

Why is selling locally and the local food movement is important to you? 

As a Windham Foundation-owned enterprise, Grafton Village Cheese communicates a sense of place. When buying locally produced cheese, you are supporting not only the teams that make it happen, but the dairies from whom we purchase our milk, and the local retailers, country stores, inns, and restaurants who include locally produced cheese on the shelves and menus.

How does working with Food Connects help your business? 

The choices we make have a direct impact on our communities. Working with Food Connects enhances our ability to educate not only students but teachers, health care, and food service professionals of the importance of using local, sustainable foods produced in our regional community. 

Could you share with us some of the new business changes at Grafton? What are some of your hopes for the future? 

In early April, as a result of COVID-19, we experienced a significant drop in volume and made the decision to move our block cheddar production from our Brattleboro location to the original Grafton facility. We continue to operate our cut and wrap operations, as well as our retail store and logistics from Brattleboro. Over the years, our volume and growth ambitions for the plant have unfortunately never been realized. The Retreat Farm's interest in acquiring the property to further its mission around local food production, agricultural products, job creation, and outdoor recreation would allow us to become an anchor tenant—relieving us of long term debt and enabling Grafton Village Cheese to become financially sustainable. In May, at our Grafton facility, we completed a months' long project of building new caves which will give us running room to increase production of our award-winning cave-aged cheeses. Combining our block cheddar and cave-aged production in Grafton, a much smaller facility, will allow us to re-focus our efforts to right-size the company. 

Any events coming up or fun fact about your business/products? 

• Our new branding is working its way into the marketplace. It's bold. It's bright. It's exciting. We are CHEESE ON A MISSION!

• Our most important "ingredient" is our cheesemaking team, led by Mariano Gonzalez, our head cheesemaker. Mariano is one of the country's best award-winning cheddar makers. Dedicated to his craft, Mariano's cheesemaking skills are recognized worldwide. 

• Our cave-aged Shepsog is the Algonquin word for “sheep”, which once covered Vermont’s hillsides during the booming wool industry of the 19th century. 

• Our sheep's milk cheese, Bear Hill is named for the scenic bluff overlooking the Village of Grafton.

Building an Alternative Food Supply for a Post-COVID World

The COVID-19 crisis shocked the nation’s food industry, resulting in forced closures of meat processing plants, reduced capacity at large distributors, and disrupted long-distance supply routes, shining a bright light on our efforts to decentralize local and regional supply chains. Food Connects and its producers and customers believe in the importance of strengthening transparent, source-identified regional food systems—if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be doing what we do!—and now we have a chance to prove it as community partners, old and new, are looking to Food Connects to lead the charge. 

The coming year is Food Connects’ most important year yet. In New England, household shoppers aspire to replace more items on their shopping lists with products that have real names, faces, and stories behind them. One of our top priorities is to meet these demands by building a stronger, more diverse catalog of fresh and value-added foods from both our immediate area as well as from around Vermont, New Hampshire, and the rest of New England. To do that, we look for producers with a discerning eye for quality, capacity, and consistency. Here are a handful of key elements we will seek in our new producer relationships:

• The product(s) serve an unmet need with our customers.

• The product is high quality, something that inspires lots of “Wow!”s and repeat purchases.

• If the products are geared toward retail sales, they must be packaged and labeled in a presentable and professional manner that meets regulatory requirements.

• The producer already has enough extra capacity to serve our customers with room for growth, OR the producer has a good foundation and wants to push on growth to match ours. 

As a small but rapidly growing food hub, we’re looking to work with producers as eager as we are to step into this moment. It’s our chance to prove that there is a viable alternative to conventional supply chains and food systems—a new system, built on decentralized, transparent sourcing from small and medium-sized businesses with real people at the helm. Thanks to all of you who have been part of our journey so far! Let’s explore this new model of food, together. 

June 2020 Food Hub Flyer

June 2020 Food Hub Flyer

Producer Spotlight: Kitchen Garden Farm

If you’re looking for incredible produce and local srirachas and salsas, look no further than Kitchen Garden Farm in Sunderland, MA. The farm is local on 50 acres of rich river bottom soil on both sides of the Connecticut River, in Sunderland and Whately. Owners Tim Wilcox and Caroline Pam are dedicated to keeping their farm certified organic and growing healthy soils by cultivating a wide range of biodiverse crops, improving crop rotation and cover cropping. 

And this is what really makes the farm unique. “We are one of few farms growing such a diverse array of crops at such a large scale,” says Lilly Israel, Sales Manager at the Kitchen Garden Farm. “We also are one of few producers making organic shelf-stable products from ingredients we grow on our own farm.” On top of all of that… they grow over 100 varieties of peppers on their farm. We can’t even name more than 15 different varieties! Holy smokes!

And their value-added products are out of this world. Our Marketing Manager may have overdone it on the Giardiniera one too many times! Lilly said it’s hard to choose her favorite. “Each season brings new crops that we can't wait to cook and eat with friends and family. We have a special interest in Italian specialties like radicchio and broccoli rabe, and of course, we love hot peppers! Our original sriracha is a testament to our farm and community's love for flavorful spicy food.” We always keep a bottle or two of the sriracha in the Food Connects staff fridge!

“We started farming because of our love of food and the way it brings people together. Growing and producing food for our local community makes our hard work feel especially rewarding.” And we couldn’t agree more and that is why we are so proud to work with such a mission-aligned farm. We brought the Kitchen Garden Farm on in early 2019 and haven’t looked back since! “Food Connects helps link us with buyers in Northern New England who we previously had no way to work with,” says Lilly. “We love creating new partnerships and adding to our list of restaurants and stores to visit!”

Every September, Kitchen Garden Farm hosts a hot pepper festival called Chilifest. “This weekend celebrating all things spicy features a chili cook-off, a hot sauce competition, spicy food, local beer, and great live music! The fate of this year's festival is unclear due to COVID-19, but we look forward to celebrating hot peppers in the future.” And we hope so too!

Meet Our New Sales Associate—Beth Lewand!

Food Connects is excited to welcome Beth Lewand to their team as their Food Hub Sales Associate.

Beth joins the team with over 10 years of experience in the food industry. Most recently she was the Operations Manager at Cricket Creek Farm, a grass-based dairy and artisanal cheese producer in Williamstown, MA. Previously, she and her husband Chris founded, owned, and operated Eastern District, a food shop specializing in craft beer and artisanal cheese, in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. 

“I think my experience as both a producer and a buyer will give me a greater understanding of our partners' needs, and hopefully help me to help them succeed,” says Beth. “I love the fact that this is a nonprofit food hub, rather than a traditional distributor, and that education and other community efforts are prioritized.”

Food Connects focuses on local food, so we asked Beth why the local food movement was important to her. “I care about it for so many reasons: because of its impact on environmental and economic sustainability; for its potential to deliver fresh, healthy food throughout the community; and because of the simple joy it brings us to connect with the land and the people who feed us.”

Beth’s passion for local food and drive to increase its impact will help propel Food Connects into the future. As a rapidly growing organization, it is important to continue to diversify products and increase the number of local producers and customers they work with. Beth’s experience will help bring on new customers and partners, offer more local products, and expand the network that Food Connects is a part of.

When Beth isn’t working with Food Connects she spends time gardening, cooking, listening to music, sewing and other textile arts, hanging out with her husband and cats, and spending time outdoors. And her favorite food, by far, is cheese! She’ll fit right in with the rest of the Food Connects crew!

And now some of the fun stuff:

If Beth was shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all her needs—such as food and water—were taken care of, she would bring along a universal jukebox and a gigantic set of Legos. And when she was little she wanted to be everything when she grew up—from a doctor to a ballerina, to a window display designer. “Oddly I never daydreamed about the food business as a kid, but now I know it's the best!”

“I'm grateful to the Food Connects crew for a warm welcome, and I'm really looking forward to meeting all of our customers, producers, and partners!” And we are excited to have you on our team, Beth!

May 2020 Food Hub Flyer

May 2020 Flyer

Producer Spotlight: Hall Apiaries

Sugar! Oh honey, honey! That’s right—spring is here and we are thinking of something sweet. Have you tried any of the tasty honey from Hall Apiaries yet? We checked in with Troy Hall, owner of Hall Apiaries to learn more about them!

Hall Apiaries is located in Plainfield, NH and offers something pretty unique—honey harvested and bottled from an apiary that is not using any chemical inputs.

“It is a rarity,” says Troy. “Not that conventional and organic chemicals are "bad" nor if managed and applied properly do they impact the integrity of honey. It’s just nice to know that there are a few of us "working it out" among the bees with a paradigm that is treatment-free. If you are an individual who cares about food purity and integrity then I can stand behind the honey I harvest and sell knowing that it is what the bees intended it to be.”

And Hall Apiaries is more than just honey. Troy specializes in breeding queen bees—they are his partners in this endeavor. “If I can lump together all the things I produce in my apiary the queens would be it. You will not find them on the shelf next to the honey, but if you are a fellow beekeeper I may be able to help you out. Outside of the bees themselves I really enjoy the honey regardless of what size container its sold in. Every year the honey takes on different color and flavor profiles, all due to the nuances of the growing season, rain, flora, and fauna in bloom along with sugar content in the nectar.”

The local food movement is extremely important to Troy—he is a native of the Upper Valley region. “As a  small farm/apiary, rooted where I live, [the local food movement] its what I am. If there was no local food movement I don't think my vocation would be in bees.” And we are certainly glad there is one! We proudly carry Hall Apiaries honey and supply it to nourish our community.

“Food Connects helps me hold to my primary goal and focus. From the beginning I wanted to keep the honey local, available to those seeking out good quality honey. For the most part, Hall Apiaries is a one man show. Having a local distributor like Food Connects helps me reach the markets I don't have the bandwidth to reach.”

April 2020 Food Hub Flyer

April 2020 Flyer

Producer Spotlight: Old Friends Farm

They may be called Old Friends Farm, but they are new to Food Connects! We are excited to have Old Friends Farm on as one of our newest producers. Owned and operated by longtime friends, Missy Bahret and Casey Steinberg, Old Friends Farm is located in Amherst, MA.

Their four Core Values are Integrity, Balance, Harmony, and Fun and exemplify those values through how they treat their employees. “We chose,” says Casey “to prioritize our employees in our business making decisions. One such way we have done this is committing to a $15 minimum starting wage as of 2019.”

Old Friends Farm is Certified Organic and is proud to be the recipient of multiple Good Food Awards (Winners and Finalists). They are widely known for pioneering Northeast-grown Ginger and Turmeric, and for the Specialty Products they make with these powerful roots. Which makes their products that we carry unique—the delicious certified organic ginger and turmeric which they grow on the farm!

Casey couldn’t decide on a favorite product. “That is always such a difficult question, as we love them all! We try our best to avoid 'playing favorites' because we want to make sure to give each product the full attention it deserves.” Our Marketing Manager, Laura Carbonneau, highly recommends the Elderberry Tumeric Honey to add new flavor to your favorite drinks.

Why is selling locally and the local food movement is important to Casey and Missy? “We strongly believe in knowing from where (and by whom) our food comes,” says Casey. “When you choose produce and products grown and made by Old Friends Farm, you know you are supporting a local business that prioritizes its employees above all else. In our eyes, sourcing local is only part of the equation. Other vital parts include fair pay to employees and owners, responsible stewardship of the land, collaboration between local and regional networks, and creating a positive, thriving workplace for all involved, and being financially secure.”

We just love the products we are able to provide from Old Friends Farm. They are, of course, delicious, but something unique to our customers. And Casey likes working with us too! “Food Connects helps us access customers and communities with whom we would otherwise not be able to reach. Our energy is best utilized by focusing on our farm, our production, and our crew. We are grateful for Food Connects for its strength in distribution and connecting with our larger food system community. It allows us to do the things we do well, and still having the confidence that someone else is doing the marketing, connecting, and distributing well. Thanks, Food Connects!”

Be sure to follow Old Friends Farm Instagram: @oldfriendsfarm and sign up for their newsletter on their Website: www.oldfriendsfarm.com.