On November 9th, after two long years with very limited community events due to COVID-19, Newbrook Elementary School hosted its first Harvest Dinner since 2019. This was a beautiful event, showcasing student-made art, donations from the community, soups cooked by students, staff, and community members, a shared meal, and a successful fundraising effort for the Farm to School program. It also started with a beautiful land acknowledgment led by students.
My grandmother taught me that a thoughtful way to welcome new neighbors into the community is to bake them a pie and deliver it to their front door with a warm smile. Here in Brattleboro, our schools and community are in the process of welcoming approximately 100 new neighbors from Afghanistan. That’s a lot of pies!
In Windham Southeast Supervisory Union (WSESU) schools, Food Service Director Ali West and her staff welcomed Afghan students through her Where in the World are We Eating program. These special meals often take more work for the food service team, so our Marketing & Outreach Manager, Laura, joined the team to help peel potatoes and prepare the meal for the following day.
On a windy, cold Thursday in February, several Food Connects staff joined Ali and Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) students for lunch to enjoy these delicious new flavors together. On the menu that day for the “Welcome Home Afghan Allies” meal was Borani Banjan (fried eggplant with tomatoes, mint, and garlic yogurt), Bolani (Flatbread stuffed with potato, onion, and peppers), Beef Kafta Kebab, and Lavash. The mix of flavors and spices was outstanding! Here’s what a couple of the students had to say about the meal:
“I like it. I like the naan and the meat has good flavor and seasoning. And the yogurt is good in flavor and texture.”
“Oftentimes the cultural food is a lot better than the other food.”
WSESD’s Nutrition program is not the only way the Brattleboro community is welcoming our new neighbors with nourishing food. The Brattleboro Multicultural Community Center-Ethiopian Community Development Council (MCC) is leading the effort to welcome our Afghan neighbors in many ways, including multiple opportunities each week for community members to provide a fresh main dish for lunch daily through a Meal Train site. Volunteers are encouraged to use a collection of Afghan recipes linked on the site, and feedback from our neighbors so far has been that our locally made versions of their traditional recipes are “somewhat bland.” Therefore cooks are encouraged to “be generous with spices, herbs, salt, and oil in the recipes.” Our neighbors say, “We especially want spicy food when we feel sad.” My coworker Beth and I made a meal a few weeks ago, and my kitchen smelled deliciously spicy afterward, those spices perhaps offering a tiny bit of healing to our new neighbors who have been through so much.
In addition, school garden coordinators at WSESD schools, in collaboration with Food Connects and Wild Carrot Farm, are planning to grow two culturally relevant crops in school gardens this season, gandana and nigella, and Kathy Cassin, the Garden Coordinator at Academy School, is featuring some Afghan dishes in her cooking projects with students. The Brattleboro Community and Food Connects family are so happy to play a small part in helping our new neighbors feel welcome, and we look forward to continuing to support and learn from them as they integrate into our area.
[BRATTLEBORO, VT, January 13, 2021-] Thanks to a combination of funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the state of Vermont the short hiatus for Everyone Eats! Brattleboro (EE!B) is over. EE!B is resuming operations on January 18th.
For Brattleboro area eaters, the program is going to feel very similar. Starting on January 18th, meal distributions will continue to be at 80 Flat St in Brattleboro from 4 - 6 pm Monday through Thursday and be open to everyone negatively affected by the pandemic. There is no registration or any paperwork required to participate; just come by car or on foot to the distribution site to receive meals for your family, including vegetarian, gluten-free, and vegan options. Partner organizations will also continue to reserve meals that they deliver directly to their clients.
Restaurants and EE!B are working together to increase the variety and consistency of meals served. We will be welcoming new restaurants, such as Whetstone Brewery, Four Columns, and the Putney Food Coop. Additionally, the program has expanded, and residents of Marlboro and the West River Valley are now also eligible to participate in the program—that’s in addition to the five towns already participating in the EE!B hub: Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, and Vernon.
Everyone Eats purchases to-go meals from local restaurants to feed our community. The program supports the local economy while supporting those in need who have been negatively impacted by COVID by food insecurity or those looking for the nourishment of prepared meals because of this crisis we are living through.
The first phase of the program—August to December 2020—brought a much-needed injection of relief funding to the local economy and greatly increased our region’s ability to support our community. Over the course of 22 weeks, 80,387 meals were distributed to community members, Everyone Eats accounted for an average of 37% of participating restaurants’ sales, and $41,818.54 worth of Vermont products and produce were purchased as ingredients for meals.
“As we continue to live with this health pandemic and economic crisis, we know the need is great,” says Stephanie Bonin, EE!B Program Director. “We’re grateful to be able to resume operations so quickly and continue to support our restaurants, farmers, and community.”
During the course of the COVID health pandemic, 1 in 3 people in Vermont have experienced hunger. While Everyone Eats does not solve food insecurity and the economic crisis it has become an important part of the relief offered. For more information about EE!B, to donate or to volunteer, visit its website (https://www.brattleboro.com/everyoneeats) or try it out for yourself by visiting 80 Flat St from 4-6 pm, Monday through Thursday.
Everyone Eats! Brattleboro (EE!B)
EE!B is a project of Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE), a statewide program funded by Federal and State funds made possible through a grant provided by Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA). The Brattleboro coalition consists of representatives from the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, Vermont Foodbank, Foodworks, Food Connects, The Putney Foodshelf, Putney Mutual Aid, and the Agency of Human Services for the state of Vermont.
Contact: Stephanie Bonin, Executive Director, Downtown Brattleboro Alliance stephanie@brattleboro.com
Five months ago, Everyone Eats! Brattleboro, a program that pays restaurants to make meals for those in the community negatively impacted by the pandemic, first piloted in Brattleboro. The program has had such a large impact on the entire Vermont community, it will continue into 2021 through a combination of federal, state, and philanthropic funding. In addition to distribution at the 80 Flat St location, organizations get meals out to the community via their networks. The Farm to School team helped by ensuring teachers at all of the Windham Southeast School District, WSESD, schools got a chance to try the meals and learn more about the program. Not only was it another way for meals funded by the CARES Act to get into the community but it brought a welcome break to busy teachers who could skip a night of cooking.
While passing out the meals, our team was reminded once again of the importance food plays in our sense of community. The joy that comes from shared food, even in physically distanced circumstances, is near-universal and a source of strength for many. We were grateful to have the opportunity to be the last leg of a long chain of community members working to make this program possible. Starting with our local farmers (meals contained, on average, over 25% local ingredients), Mama Sezz then managed all of the pick-up logistics and dedicated volunteers who made distribution a weekly part of their lives were the backbone of the operation. Everyone Eats! has brought hundreds of new people into the world of charitable food and created new connections within the community. We’re excited to bring these new connections and perspectives with us as we continue to strengthen our local food system.
