Vermont Way Foods: A Catalyst for Change

More than just a farm, Scott Farm is a piece of Vermont history. The farm, nestled in the woods of Dummerston, Vermont, boasts a 231-year history of innovative agriculture and social responsibility. It’s not unusual to see tourists and Vermonters picking peaches in the summer or apples in the fall from their orchards, some planted in the early 20th century, with over 130 heirloom varieties. Like so many farms, Scott Farm was hit hard by the pandemic, shutting down many public offerings like educational and informational workshops and Pick-Your-Own services. And like many farms, Scott relied on agritourism to keep the farm operating, but folks weren’t coming out as before. 

When Food Connects, The Intervale Center, Green Mountain Farm Direct, and The Center for Agricultural Economy formed the Vermont Food Hub Collaborative (VFHC), they thought of businesses like Scott Farm. In 2020 VFHC created Vermont Way Foods (VWF), a unique brand based on Vermont values. VWF will create new market opportunities for Vermont producers, supporting a robust and vibrant farm and food economy with the goal to break even and generate $12 Million each year in new sales for Food Hub members, farmers, and partners by 2025. 

We sat down with Matt Landi, Director of Brand and Business Development for Vermont Way Foods, to talk about the history of this unique collaboration. And to learn how VWF will support Scott Farm and many other Vermont small food and farm businesses while building a regional food system that reflects Vermont values and returns wealth to Vermont’s rural communities.

“By localizing the supply chain and diving into retail merchandising strategy in a more structured, cohesive fashion, you’re offering small farms the opportunity to participate in merchandising and promotional programs typically offered primarily by national distributors.”

— Matt Landi, Vermont Way Foods.

Food Connects (FC): Thanks much for talking with us, Matt. Can you tell us a little bit about the work you’ve been doing with the Vermont Food Hub Collaborative and Vermont Way Foods?

Matt Landi (ML): Yeah, of course! Thanks for this opportunity to talk about Vermont Way Foods. It’s a project I’m really excited to be involved with, especially right now. 

For decades, the four organizations that comprise the VFHC have worked in Vermont, supporting farm viability and food access and creating experiences for people to engage in the food system. In 2020, the four food hubs saw $6 million in cumulative local food sales. By working together, sharing infrastructure, connections, and decades of expertise, VFHC will have an exponentially more significant impact on Vermont’s food system—carving out opportunities for Vermont producers who are poised to grow their businesses and meet the regional need for local, sustainably produced food. Trying to compete as a small producer is tough. Of the many challenges, effective logistics, overall capacity, and a competitive cost structure are key areas of focus as the business scales. The cost is probably much higher if you are selling 20 lb boxes compared to 40 lb boxes because you have a specialty product, and it costs more to get it where it’s going. The VFHC is essential in supporting our logistical service proposition, vital to survival, growth, and differentiation. 

FC: Can you tell us a little bit about Vermont Ways Foods' impact on small businesses like Scott Farm?

ML: Scott Farm is a perfect example of a unique branding opportunity. No one else grows what they grow. They are dealing with antique varieties, it’s a multi-generational eating experience, and that’s a compelling story to tell the conscious consumer. If they had a big marketing department and a lot of money to invest, they could plaster marketing on a huge level. But they are a small operation, focusing on growing their heirloom apples, among other produce, as they should. Many are also rare because they are an outright challenge to grow. It’s very difficult to predict the crop's appearance year to year in a micro/variety by variety level. 

The orchard is a living organism. 

Heirloom apples aren’t uniquely Vermont, but they fit the mold of Vermont Way Foods. The VFHC is on a mission to help regional consumers find the foods and experiences they crave while helping to build a more just and sustainable food economy for Vermont. A food economy where our lands are working, ecological resources are sustainably managed, rural economies are flourishing, and our state’s food and farm culture continues to perform as a great economic multiplier for our tourism economy, small towns, and quality of life. VWF is the sustainable alternative to a global food market that incentivizes bigger, faster, cheaper, and easier. 

Food Connects Raises Over $10,000 to Expand Local Food Markets

 Food Connects successfully completed our “Growing Local Food Markets in the Monadnock Region” campaign. This campaign, run through the Local Crowd Monadnock, focused on improving the Food Connects Food Hub’s internal infrastructure to expand market access for their local farmers and food producers.

Thanks to the generosity of over 70 different individuals, Food Connects raised $10,850 by April 18. Additionally, community shoppers at the Monadnock Food Co-op and Hannah Grimes Marketplace supported this campaign through sales promotions and customer round-ups. “We are incredibly humbled and grateful for the generosity of our community,” says Richard Berkfield, Executive Director. “We continue to see an outpouring of support for our local food economy and we want to thank all of our community supporters and partners for their commitment to local food during this time.”

The funds raised through this campaign go towards Food Connects’ food safety program and delivery infrastructure. As Food Connects grows and improves its internal systems it can access larger wholesale markets, allowing the 70+ local food producers they work with to sell their products on a larger scale, supporting individual business growth goals and creating a more resilient local food economy.

“Picadilly Farm works with Food Connects to extend our farm sales to regional buyers throughout Windham and Cheshire Counties,” says Jenny Wooster, co-owner of Picadilly Farm. “Their work is great for connecting farms and local producers with local schools, local institutions, and local stores. We're lucky to have Food Connects as part of the food security network here.” 

Connecting farmers and local food producers to wholesale customers is no small feat. The Food Hub team is working hard to manage the growing demand for local food and saw a record sales week in early April—normally one of the slowest months of the year. The internal infrastructure of Food Connects’ systems is critical to supporting successful market growth. To improve systems, the team implemented an Integrated Pest Management Program and purchased warehouse storage shelving, color-coded transport boxes, allergen and warehouse cleaning supplies, and SKU guns, with more equipment to be purchased with the successful completion of the campaign.

“The funds from this campaign will have a major impact on our day-to-day operations,” says McKenna Hayes, Food Hub Operations Manager. “We will gain operational efficiencies, purchase the required equipment, and formally integrate food safety procedures and record-keeping into our distribution systems.”

The entire Food Connects team would like to thank the community for their support of local food during these trying times. If you would like to learn more about how you can help improve the local food economy or volunteer opportunities, please contact info@foodconnects.org.

Food Connects Closes in on $10,000

Food Connects is now over 75% of the way to its crowdfunding goal of $10,000 for ourr “Growing Local Food Markets in the Monadnock Region” campaign. This campaign, run through the Local Crowd Monadnock, aims to increase market access for local farmers and food producers.

Thanks to the generosity of over 50 donors, Food Connects raised $7,741 as of March 31. These funds will go towards implementing the first steps in Food Connects newly optimized food safety plan—covering the cost of the food safety certification and audit, the monthly fees for the Integrated Pest Management Program, staff training, and necessary cleaning and transportation supplies.

A large portion of these funds was raised through the Monadnock Food Co-op’s Round It Up program for March. Co-op customers had the opportunity to round up their change at the register for this campaign, resulting in $4,341.19. “We are so grateful for the incredible generosity of the community at the Monadnock Food Co-op,” says Richard Berkfield, Food Connects’ Executive Director. “These funds will help Food Connects develop the necessary infrastructure needed to sell to larger wholesale customers.”

The outbreak of COVID-19 has heightened the need for and awareness of supporting the local food economy. “Now, more than ever, it is important to strengthen our local food businesses,” says Berkfield. “Many food producers are seeing a loss of sales due to college and restaurant closures. Our campaign focuses on developing current and new markets to ensure that there is a broad and diverse set of customers always available to purchase local food. Resilient local food economies can weather the storm.”

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, Food Connects is continuing on with its local food delivery. “The last three weeks we’ve seen a 50-80% increase in our local food sales,” says Alex McCullough, Food Hub Manager. “We are delivering food to local co-ops and markets, hospitals, school meal programs, and buying clubs in record numbers. This diverse group of customers is allowing us to continue supporting farmers and finding outlets for their food.”

A matching challenge is now in place. The Monadnock Food Co-op will match each donation to the Food Connects crowdfunding campaign dollar for dollar up to $500.  Food Connects needs to raise $2,259 by April 18.

Growing Local Food Markets with Food Connects

We are excited to announce the launch of our “Growing Local Food Markets in the Monadnock Region” crowdfunding campaign, through The Local Crowd Monadnock, this March. The goal of this online campaign is to raise $10,000 to go towards building Food Connects’ infrastructure and capacity to sell to larger, wholesale customers.

We partner with local farmers and food producers throughout the Monadnock Region to deliver their bounty to schools, grocery stores, hospitals, restaurants, and other businesses. Our work creates a vibrant food economy with a vision to make local food accessible to all community members. And to achieve this goal, food producers need access to larger markets, allowing them to scale up production and increase their revenue.

But it’s not as simple as selling to larger customers. “Many large-scale, wholesale customers in the community can only purchase from a limited number of approved vendors,” says McKenna Hayes, Food Connects Food Hub Operations Manager. “It is difficult, if not impossible, to become an approved vendor for small-scale, family-owned operations.”

“One of the neat things about dealing with Food Connects is having a single point of contact for the farmers,” says Troy Bellot, Executive Chef at Keene State College. “They’re a single point of ordering and have one portal to order, making things so much easier.”

“The restrictions to growing my business is the access to the marketplaces,” says Linda Rubin, owner of Frisky Cow Gelato. “I can’t get into larger markets as a little guy. I need a distributor that not only will work with me but has that third-party certification so it is easy for stores to bring in, not just my products, but lots of local Vermont and New Hampshire products.

With the Growing Local Food Markets in the Monadnock Region campaign, Food Connects will become an approved vendor for larger customers, allowing schools, grocery stores, hospitals, and restaurants to easily purchase from over 70 local farms and producers that sell through Food Connects.

Funds from this campaign will go towards portable hand washing stations, shelving and storage, staff training, and a third-party food safety certification and audit. As an approved vendor, we can distribute local products to larger customers—meaning local food is consumed by more community members across the region.

“Third-party food certifications are important to us for traceability of our food,” says Bellot. “That’s what it all boils down to. Knowing exactly where every cucumber, every tomato, every piece of fish we order—where that came from, the farmer who picked it, the boat that brought it in, everybody who handled it. The traceability of food is key to accountability and safety.”

“This money will have a major impact on our day-to-day operations,” says Hayes. “We will gain operational efficiencies, purchase required equipment, and formally integrate food safety procedures and record-keeping into our distribution systems. But, more importantly, this funding will enable us to overcome the barriers farmers and producers face when entering larger wholesale markets, and ultimately, grow our local food economy.”

Find more information at  http://bit.ly/3aKEate. We will also offer a Happy Hour Hangout at Machina Arts Artbar in Keene on Thursday, March 26 for community members to learn more about this crowdfunding campaign.

Food Connects Unveils New Cooler & Freezer

Food Connects hosted our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on December 12, 2019, at their Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) Business Park location to celebrate the unveiling of our new 1,000 square foot cooler and freezer.

Over 50 Food Connects’ staff, board members, funders, partners, customers, producers, and family members joined to celebrate this milestone. Guests sampled Food Connects’ products, prepared by Harley Sterling, School Nutrition Director of the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union, and his staff at the Farm to School Cafe. Richard Berkfield, our Executive Director, opened the evening with gratitude towards all of those who supported Food Connects throughout the years and, more recently, the Cooler Campaign. 

Richard Berkfield

“We moved in here a little over a year ago with a few ideas about how to turn this place into our new warehouse,” Richard told the crowd. “For a long time, we had masking tape on the floor representing two large boxes, one frozen, here and another cold there. As you might imagine, we felt constrained. And the reality was the cooler wasn’t going to be big enough for our growth trajectory and we would have to do something again soon. It didn’t feel right.”

Our team knew the space had the potential to help the organization grow, getting more local food to more community members in the region. With the help of the BDCC,  we were able to identify a space adjacent to our offices for expansion. 

Adam Grinold

“At the BDCC we are always on the lookout for folks and businesses that have a bit of a growth mindset—that’s definitely Food Connects,” remarked speaker Adam Grinold, Executive Director of the BDCC. Our organizations have worked together for several years in support of workforce development around food systems.  “[They’re] already a job creator with 14 people supporting the mission here, this new location has tripled the storage capacity, it’s close for both collection and distribution access. Food Connects is more than just a food distribution company, they are food systems leaders.”

The support from the BDCC has been invaluable in getting Food Connects where we are today and with the funding from the High Meadows Fund as well as many other generous individuals and businesses, we raised $200,000 to make our dream of an expanded Food Hub become a reality.

Gaye Symington, President of the High Meadows Fund, also spoke at the event. The High Meadows Fund promotes vibrant communities and healthy natural ecosystems in Vermont. Their Farm to Market Initiative is focused in particular on increasing the sale of Vermont farm and food products through wholesale and institutional markets that recognize, and are willing to pay for, the value of fresh, healthy local food.

Gaye Symington

“Food Connects matters,” remarked Gaye “because they are focused on buyers who value high-quality food. Food Connects matters because they make sure a greater share of the consumer’s food dollar can get back to the farmer. And Food Connects matters because as they demonstrate this approach can work, they nudge the rest of the food distribution system to better serve farmers and producers as a key element of the food system.”

Food Connects’ new cooler and freezer will allow us to offer our wholesale customers—including schools, hospitals, independent groceries, and business food programs—more options for using local products in place of commodity foods. This increase in capacity will allow us to build market channels for more producers and consumers in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire, the Upper Valley, and Western Massachusetts. And the timing of the new facility couldn’t be better—Food Connects hit over 30% growth for the second year in a row, totaling over $550k in local sales for 2019.

“We have so much gratitude to all of our many partners and supporters,” said Richard. “Producers, customers, donors, staff, board, and other advocates along the way have gotten us to this point. We are excited for the impacts our expanded Food Hub will have on our local economy and to bring you more local food.”

To watch the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony online and see pictures from the event head to www.facebook.com/FoodConnects

Cooler Campaign: Progess Update

First day of construction for our new cooler!

Have you heard about our Cooler Campaign? We are in the process of building a 1,000 square foot cooler and freezer space that will allow us to triple the amount of local food we are able to deliver to local schools, restaurants, hospitals, independent grocery stores, and other businesses.

The fundraising campaign is off to a great start. Our goal is to raise $200k and, so far, we secured $150k through grant funding and an additional $20k from community members. We are closing in on the remaining $30k and are looking to the community to fill the gap. A huge THANK YOU is certainly in order.

As for the cooler—there is a lot of noise, the sweet sound of progress, from the space adjacent to our offices. The cooler box is built, the refrigeration units are installed. Most of the electrical is complete and the whole unit still needs to be tested. The floors are as good as new—they were ground to remove chipped paint, flattened and repaired, and then densified and sealed for protection and long life.

McKenna Hayes, our Operations Manager, is excited about the motion detector high efficiency LEDs lights that are now installed—making her job much easier. A new electric sliding door will be installed to make it easy to go in and out—as well as a roll up door for the exterior. We plan to add innovative remote entry for farms and others to drop or pick up product after hours with a full audit trail.

Our fire notifiers our installed, but we’re still waiting on sprinklers. Really? Sprinklers in a freezer? Frozen food is flammable? Call the fire marshall! Just kidding! Safety for our staff, the food, and neighbors at the BDCC Business Park is a top priority.

We are so excited for the construction to be complete, but the project will certainly not be over. We will have to move our inventory into the new space and develop new delivery, receiving, and safety procedures to ensure that we can get the food to community members in the same reliable fashion we have been.

Looking to learn more about or support the project? Contact us today!

Food Connects to Build New Cooler and Freezer

In November of 2018, Food Connects moved to a new facility at the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation’s (BDCC) Business Park. This new space offers many benefits—access to a loading dock for our fleet, increased office and storage space, and most importantly, room to grow. 

Room to grow is essential to our future as we work towards a centralized facility with adequate storage capacity for all our frozen, refrigerated, and dry product. Currently, we’re only able to house smaller freezer units and dry storage under our roof. As we worked to utilize the current space to maximum capacity, dreaming up designs and wishlists, there was a fortuitous turn of events—we are now leasing our office space as well as the space adjacent to ours. 

What does this mean for Food Connects and our Food Hub? Well, we’ve been hard at work on the design, fundraising, and operational implementation of a 1,000 square foot freezer and cooler space! 

Richard secured grant funding for us from High Meadows Fund, Sandy River Charitable Foundation, and the You Have Our Trust Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. These grants provide partial funding for the layout design and construction of the cooler space by ARC Mechanical, coordinated by Alex and McKenna.  To raise the remaining funds to pay for the construction, Laura created and is implementing a campaign plan—and we need your help!

We are incredibly excited about what this means for the future of our Food Hub. The new 1,000 square foot cooler and freezer space give us three times more storage capacity. This means that we can increase the number of producers and products we carry, increasing the amount of local food we are able to provide to our community. Operational efficiencies will dramatically increase with our loading docks, offices, and storage space all under one roof—increasing ease of access for drop-offs and pick-ups. And, we hope, that this will aid in our ability to service more producers and consumers in the Upper Valley.

Now we are at an impasse—we are $150,000 into our goal of $200,000 thanks to grant funding and corporate donations. We need to start construction and are still $50,000 away from our goal—and need your help, our community’s help, to get there. We are so close to our goal and thrilled to have the support of so many community partners already.

If you would like to know more about our campaign, please be sure to check our expansion page on our website. We will provide up to date information as often as possible.

And please, consider making a charitable, tax-deductible donation to our Cooler Campaign to make our dream a reality!

A New Home for Food Connects

Food Connects was bursting at the seams. Our growing team meant that we quickly outgrew our wonderful space at the Retreat Farm. Knowing we would keep a strong partnership with their educational programming, we searched for a new place to call home.

In November the Food Connects team said “We’re home!” to a 3,300 square foot warehouse space in the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation Business Park. We traded in the sounds of farm animals for the sounds of pallet jacks. And although it does not have the stunning views as the old farmhouse, we have something essential to our future—room to grow.

Spacious office areas allow our teams to work more effectively. Having our coolers, freezers, and dry storage in one area allows our Food Hub to more efficiently manage products. And our favorite feature? Access to a loading dock! Our box truck and van can now simply drive up to the door and we can load up right away. This means we spend less time moving back and forth from space to space to complete orders and receive more accurate orders!

Amazingly, with all of the equipment and areas we have set up, we still have space! We are looking towards the future to envision how we can best use the rest of the space. We are eager to see what partnerships with our neighbors, Against the Grain and the Vermont Foodbank, may bring. We are fortunate to have a great partnership with Harlow Farms that allows us to use their cooler space and we have plans to add a walk-in cooler and freezer to store products in our new location. And we can’t wait until we are able to host our first public event in this space!

If you are interested in learning more about our ideas for the future or funding any projects please contact info@foodconnects.org.

Our Van is in the Spotlight

Food Connects expands wholesale delivery with new van

A new refrigerated van will allow Food Connects to expand delivery.

Posted Monday, October 8, 2018 8:15 pm

Brattleboro Reformer

BRATTLEBORO — Food Connects, a nonprofit organization that focuses on farm-to-school programming and wholesale local food distribution, added a new refrigerated van to its Food Hub fleet for deliveries.

Food Connects was able to purchase the new refrigerated cargo van thanks to grant support from the State of Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Board and USDA Rural Development. The van allows Food Connects to have two drivers making deliveries simultaneously, increasing the amount of locally produced food delivered in southeast Vermont, southwest New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts. Deliveries are made to more than 100 hospitals, schools, independent grocers, co-ops, and other wholesale buyers in the region.

Adding the van to the Food Hub fleet was necessary to keep pace with the rapidly growing demand for local food in the region. And the arrival of the van was well-timed, as sales dramatically increased this fall. Food Connects has had multiple and consecutive record-breaking sales weeks since the purchase of the van, and sales in September were higher than any single month in the organization's history. All of these dollars stay local and go back to more than 60 local producers in the community.

The van presents even more opportunities for the future of Food Connects. It creates an opportunity to increase the variety of items sold, including the amount of frozen products it delivers to customers. Food Connects will be able to reach remote buyers more efficiently and more often, helping with their expansion of services to the Upper Valley region. It's also an investment in the effort to provide the best and most reliable customer service to all of the organization's customers, and it strengthens market development support for local agriculture and food businesses that is critical to the future of the rural economy.

Food Connects is an entrepreneurial nonprofit that delivers locally produced food as well as educational and consulting services aimed at transforming local food systems.

Organization streamlines local food distribution with new refrigerated van

Thursday, October 18, 2018

By Meg McIntyre, Keene Sentinel Staff  

For one area nonprofit organization, a new refrigerated delivery van will make it easier to connect people with locally grown food and products.

Food Connects is a Brattleboro-based nonprofit organization that delivers locally produced foods from more than 45 farms, vendors and producers to organizations throughout southeastern Vermont, southwestern New Hampshire and western Massachusetts.

For food producers — such as Monadnock Region participants like Farmer John’s Plot in Dublin, Picadilly Farm in Winchester and Terra Nova Coffee in Keene — Food Connects helps streamline the wholesale distribution process, according to Laura Carbonneau, communications manager.

“They don’t have to go and make all these individual deliveries; we aggregate it, and get as much back to the farmers as possible,” Carbonneau said.

Food Connects was recently able to purchase a new refrigerated delivery van through grant funding from the state of Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Board and from U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, which will allow for two delivery drivers to be on the road at one time.

Until now, the organization hasn’t always been able to meet its demand with only one box truck available for shipments. But with the new refrigerated van, the organization will be able to increase the number of deliveries it’s able to make, Carbonneau said.

“We’ll be able to increase in terms of not only how many, but where we’re going to be able to go, too,” Carbonneau said. “Because we are kind of concentrated in this southwest corner and southeast corner of Vermont and New Hampshire, and now we’ll be able to broaden that a little bit further.”

Food Connects serves a wide range of organizations, from the Monadnock Food Co-Op to Cheshire Medical Center to the ConVal Regional School District.

“When local schools and businesses are purchasing locally, they’re investing back into their community, and they’re getting food that’s not transported all the way from California or Florida,” she said. “It’s local, and it gives a better sense of connection to the community as well.”

Beyond helping organizations purchase farm-fresh products, Food Connects also runs farm-to-school programming with networking and educational events in Vermont schools. For example, the organization helps facilitate taste tests for the Harvest of the Month campaign, which promotes seasonal eating.

“Some of the support that we offer is helping food service directors figure out how to incorporate local food into their menus, because that’s not always the easiest thing to do,” Carbonneau said.

In 2017, Food Connects also took over management of Monadnock Menus, a program the organization helped start through the Cheshire County Conservation District in 2013 to help area farmers and food producers market and distribute their products to different enterprises.

Carbonneau noted that through operating that program, Food Connects has increased its focus on New Hampshire and the Monadnock Region.

“Really we do focus a lot on New Hampshire and getting food into New Hampshire schools and stores, and we purchase from a lot of different New Hampshire vendors and farmers and producers. So it’s really not just a Vermont thing, and it’s becoming more of a tri-state thing with Massachusetts too,” Carbonneau said.

“But right now it’s definitely the Twin States working together.”