VSECU: Improving the Lives of VT Kids

For our Farm to School team at Food Connects, it's very important that our Farm to School sponsors align with our core values. And when we heard that VSECU’s (a values-based credit union) mission was “To improve the quality of life for all Vermonters,” we knew there was the making for a great partnership.

VSECU’s values-based thinking and focus on the triple bottom line is a demonstration of its commitment to our greater community. As they commit to reinvesting in businesses and our community, they are also reinvesting in our children. This upcoming school year, VSECU will help our Farm to School team supply valuable resources to schools throughout Windham County—from professional development and curriculum development to applying for grants and local food taste tests.

"The Farm to School Program just makes sense,” says Simeon Chapin, Community Impact Officer for VSECU. “Healthy, nutritious food is a cornerstone of a child's preparation for learning. Providing these foods, and teaching kids where their food comes from and how to grow it sets the path for health and vitality for life. It's also an economic lesson in the importance of buying local. Schools are a center of our communities—it's key to connect them to our working landscape and the people who steward it."

We are so grateful for the support VSECU provides to our Farm to School program—living up to their mission of improving the quality of life for all Vermonters, especially the children. Their support helps drive our program forward, and it’s easy to see the impact our sponsors have on schools. Thank you, VSECU, for being a Farm to School champion!

Hubbard Creates a Lasting Farm to School Impact

Hubbard Breeders, located in Walpole, NH, is Food Connects' top corporate donor for its Farm to School program the 2021-2022 school year!

Since 1921, Hubbard has been a worldwide reference for broiler breeding stock. While not a producer for the Food Connects Food Hub, their commitment to animal welfare aligns with the organization’s values. Hubbard is CODE EFABAR certified, which “addresses the issues of food safety and public health, product quality, genetic diversity, efficiency, environmental impact, animal health, animal wel­fare, and breeding and reproduction technologies.”

“With our focus on breeding sustainably, Hubbard shares mutual values with Food Connects for Healthy Families, Thriving Farms, and Connected Communities,” says Anne Hill, Hubbard Breeders Human Resource Manager, “We feel compelled to promote them in their efforts of supporting educators, food service directors, farms, and community members in cultivating healthy farm and food connections in classrooms, cafeterias, and communities across the region.”

The partnership between the two organizations began in late 2021 and goes beyond a donor and recipient transaction. Food Connects and Hubbard took time to connect their teams and figure out how to make a meaningful partnership that would benefit not only the organizations but the community as well. Ideas abounded when the two organizations met including:

• Ways that they could impact Farm to School in the region 

• Supporting school horticulture programs

• Helping grow community and school gardens by providing supplies and resources

• Presenting in classrooms and job readiness programs to teach more students about the possibilities of agricultural job employment

“Despite the rain, our own April Sears volunteered with Food Connects to donate her time and gave an extra set of hands to Orchard Hill Breadworks to assist with gardening! She helped dig trenches around the community garden and get the plantation freshened up for the spring season! Go to the Orchard Hill Breadworks in Alstead, NH to get some delicious baked goods. If you get an oven brick pizza you can pick your toppings from the community garden that April helped with. Thank you April for helping our community on your spare time, we are pleased to have you as a Hubbard employee. If you come to the main office you will see April as she is our receptionist and you can ask her about her time with Orchard Hill Breadworks. ”

Food Connects is grateful for the opportunity to work with such a strong community partner. Already, Hubbard has supported the growth of the Farm to School program throughout the year and even contributed volunteers to recent Food Connects’ events. The growth of both organizations, in tandem, will surely mean success in the years to come.

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Food Connects is an entrepreneurial non-profit that delivers locally produced food as well as educational and consulting services aimed at transforming local food systems. The Food Hub aggregates and delivers from over 150 regional farms and food producers to over 150 buyers in southeast Vermont, southwest New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts. Their educational services focus on Farm to School programming. Acknowledged as a statewide leader, the program supports over 30 schools to increase local food purchasing, school meal participation, and food, farm, and nutrition education. Together these core programs contribute to a vibrant local economy by increasing local food purchases by schools and improving students’ nutrition and academic performance. Food Connects is frequently hired to provide leadership and consulting services for efforts to support food systems initiatives throughout New England and act as a catalyst for change.

Hubbard Breeders is a chicken breeding company, dedicated to improving the communities they work in. If you’ve driven down Cheshire Turnpike lately, you probably saw some fancy chicken houses going up in south Langdon. Those (nearly finished) chicken houses comprise two state-of-the-art farms that Hubbard LLC is starting up. One is called Pleasant Valley Farm after the original farm that was there, and the other is named Centennial Farm in honor of Hubbard’s 100-year anniversary last year. Hubbard’s $13M investment in these farms will bring tax revenue into Langdon and create jobs for the community. If that piques your interest, stop by our office in Walpole and ask for Anne or Lucas!

Fresh Picks Bringing Fresh Food to Schools

Many of Food Connects’ sponsors are local businesses looking to support Farm to School that may not directly do so with their work. Food Connects has the unique privilege, however, of working closely with one daily—Fresh Picks Café.

Based out of Manchester, NH, Fresh Picks Café is a food service contracting company that works with public schools and school districts to provide meals for their students. These meals, often sourcing local foods and always following state and federal guidelines, are quite delicious! Our Farm to School team works with its team members at schools across Windham County, and their values align well with our work.

“The motivating philosophy at Fresh Picks Café is that wellness and good food go hand in hand—especially in education. Our comprehensive, coordinated, pro-active wellness programs promote this belief with an emphasis on fresh and whole wheat foods that are locally grown and produced.”

— Fresh Picks Café

And so, a symbiotic relationship was established. Fresh Picks Café supports our Farm to School program and helps us grow and thrive. At the same time, our Farm to School team helps their school teams apply for kitchen equipment grants, provides professional development opportunities, and partners with them on multiple projects (like the Where in the World Are We Eating series).

This long-lasting partnership has helped feed children throughout Windham County for years and will continue to bring the most nutritious food possible to help kids in our neighborhoods thrive.

Growing Farm to School with the Monadnock Food Co-op

Just in time for its ninth birthday, we celebrate our partner and Farm to School sponsor, the Monadnock Food Co-op (MFC). 

It’s hard to imagine that the Keene community didn’t have a co-op less than ten years ago. MFC has become an integral part of downtown Keene, serving as an accessible downtown community marketplace featuring local, nutritious, and sustainable foods. The co-op provides a valuable resource for the community and local farmers to connect and enhance our local food economy. 

But beyond being a grocery store, the Co-op supports food systems organizations throughout the community. Each month the Co-op holds a monthly Round It Up donation drive “to raise funds for initiatives that improve the health of our community and help create a vibrant, sustainable local food system.” At the register, community members can “round up” their change—last year, shoppers contributed more than $65,000 to 11 nonprofit organizations and initiatives.

Food Connects has been lucky enough to be one of the Round It Up donation drive recipients. Last year, the Monadnock Food Co-op shoppers donated over $6,000 to our Back to School with Food Connects campaign to raise funds for our Farm to School program. And we’re excited to announce that we will be the August recipient of the Round Up this year. Every dollar we raise goes directly towards our Farm to School programming. We continue to build our partnership with the Modanock Farm to School Network through professional development support and mini-grant funding. This April, you will see us at the Monadnock Earth Day Festival, creating sprouting kits for kiddos to bring home and grow with their families.

We are fortunate to have a strong partnership with the Co-op beyond our Roundup—we deliver local food to the store, partner with them on the Kitchen 2.0 series (a virtual cooking class for kids), participate in many of their events, and more. The Co-op is one of our top customers and exemplifies what it means to be dedicated to improving the local food economy.

Like many other organizations, we are grateful for the support that the Co-op provides our community. Aside from their regular donation requests and their Round It Up initiative, they also serve farms through the Monadnock Food Co-op Farm Fund. This program’s mission is to “support local farmers in increasing sustainable food production and wholesale sales to contribute to a thriving local farm economy.” Many farmers who received these grants work with our Food Hub. Since starting the program in 2017, the Farm Fund has raised over $87,000 for sixteen local farms.

The Brattleboro Food Co-op: An Outstanding Community Partnership

When Food Connects reflects on some of our partnerships throughout the community, one business stands out as one of our top supporters—the Brattleboro Food Co-op (BFC).

A monolith in Brattleboro, BFC has served the community since 1975 by providing high-quality locally sourced, organic, and nutritious foods. Food Connects is fortunate to have BFC as one of our top wholesale customers—purchasing our source-identified New England foods to share with the greater community. And with over 8,000 active members, that means more local food is getting into homes across the county.

Not only is the Co-op a major partner to our Food Hub, but they are also a huge supporter of our Farm to School (FTS) program. Last August, they chose our FTS program as one of their Round Up For Change recipients. Because of the generosity of the Brattleboro Food Co-op and its patrons, Food Connects raised over $7,000! These funds went directly to our programming for the 2021-2022 school year, including coaching for Brattleboro schools and professional development for teachers and garden coordinators.

However, the Brattleboro Food Co-op’s generosity doesn’t end with Food Connects. Between December 2020 and December 2021, the Co-op raised over $84,500 through their Round Up program that they distributed to 13 different non-profits. This year, each month is shared between two different organizations to share the wealth among different causes and organizations. This month’s recipients are Brattleboro Time Trade and our partners at Edible Brattleboro. So, next time you are shopping at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, ask to Round Up your change at the register!