2022 MONADNOCK EARTH DAY FILM FESTIVAL

Hosted by the Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition (MFCC), Monadnock International Film Festival, &

The Monadnock Food Co-op

MFCC will partner with Monadnock International Film Festival and the Monadnock Food Coop, offering a virtual film festival as part of the region's Earth Day Celebrations. 

The Monadnock Earth Day Film Festival will take place from April 20 - April 22, 2022. This free online event will feature films and host panel discussions to celebrate and cultivate a more resilient world.

"We are excited to offer 3, short documentaries that shed light on current ag-related initiatives addressing climate change, regional food resiliency, and food access. A panel discussion will accompany each film. Panelists will unpack for audience members how they work to build a sustainable, resilient, and fair food system.” said Roe-Ann Tasoulas from Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition.

FILMS:

FARM FREE OR DIE - 2022

Climate Change | English | 30 min   

Extreme weather events are hitting America’s farmers hard and more frequently than ever before. "Farm Free or Die" shows how transformative agricultural policies can improve farming livelihoods while addressing the climate crisis. The stories of farmers on the front lines of severe environmental and economic adversity will catalyze support for policies that stabilize rural communities, strengthen food security, and incentivize soil health and carbon removal.

Roger Sorkin, American Resiliency Project, Writer and Director of Farm Free or Die, will be available for audience questions following the screening.

FARMER CEE - 2020

Social Justice | Food/Farming | BIPOC | English | 12 min

Clarenda "Cee" Stanley is currently the CEO/President of Green Heffa Farms. From an agrarian family in Alabama's Black Belt, Cee did not see herself as a farmer. But in 2018, she co-founded Green Heffa Farms and was selected to be the 2019 Featured Farmer for Hemp History Week. However, in 2019, Cee also found herself being solely responsible for Green Heffa Farms, and from there, she began to reimagine the legacy she wanted to leave for her children and grandchildren.

Panel discussion will follow screening.

HOPE ON THE HUDSON: GROWING WITH THE GRAIN - 2019

Food/Farming | Climate Change | English | 15 min                       

Upstate New York used to be a breadbasket of grain growing. Westward expansion yielded more ideal climates for growing and production shifted to the Midwest. Scientists, farmers, bakers, and brewers take part in a grain trial test that hopes to produce a new generation of grain suited for the northeast, bringing sustainable and more localized grain production back to the region.

Panel discussion participants: Sarah Cox, Tuckaway Farm; Sam Temple, Fire Dog Bread; Christian and Andrea Stanley, Valley Malt/Ground Up. Cox and the Stanleys are members of the Northeast Grainshed Alliance.

"MONIFF is thrilled to partner with the Monadnock Food Co-op and Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition to celebrate Earth Day by bringing the community together through diverse films and thoughtful discussions," said Dee Fitzgerald from Monadnock International Film Festival. 

This event is free; however, registration is required. Register at:

 monadnock2022earthdayfestival.eventive.org/welcome.

SPONSORS:

• Main Event Sponsors: C&S Wholesale Grocers, Prime Roast Coffee Company, Tasoulas Realty

• Farm to Community Supporters: W.S. Badger, Frisky Cow Gelato, Savings Bank of Walpole, True North Networks

• Film Festival Partners: The Monadnock Food Co-op, Monadnock International Film Festival

• Local Food Fighters: Yankee Farm Credit, Stonewall Farm, The Hungry Diner, Archway Farm, and the Monadnock Conservancy.

• Other organizations interested in sponsoring this event can contact coordinator@mfcccoalition.org.

Phase Two of the Monadnock Restaurant Project Launching Soon

KEENE, NH - In early February, The Local Crowd Monadnock, Culinary Journeys, and Food Connects partnered to launch the Monadnock Restaurant Project, a homegrown stimulus program to help give the local restaurant economy the shot in the arm it needs to get through this winter.

According to the National Restaurant Association, more than 69,500 individuals worked in restaurant and foodservice jobs in New Hampshire before the pandemic—representing 10% of the state’s total employment. However, more than 200 NH restaurants have permanently closed since last March. The Monadnock Restaurant Project looks to inspire community support for local restaurant owners and their employees to keep these businesses open, and their staff retained.

In one month, the project dispersed over 600 gift cards from 25 local restaurants to employers, including C&S Wholesale Grocers, Nanotech, and Savings Bank of Walpole. These businesses shared these gift cards with their staff and asked them to spend the cards quickly, providing an immediate shot in the arm to Keene's local economy this winter. The Keene Sentinel and Monadnock Broadcasting Group also distributed gift cards to community members through contests and giveaways.

Organizers are fundraising for the project through The Local Crowd Monadnock's community-based crowdfunding program. Currently, they have raised 82% of their overall goal of $30,000. Culinary Journey's contributed $10,000 to start this project, and eighty-two community supporters have donated an additional $14,500. This crowdfunding campaign continues through March: give.communityfunded.com/o/tlcmonadnock/i/tlc/s/stimulus.

The funds raised will be used to purchase a second round of gift cards from local restaurants and food businesses in the Keene area, businesses not included in phase one of the project.

The project also aspires to inspire others to pay it forward to support the local restaurant economy. Businesses such as The Richards Group, Historical Society of Cheshire County, and Northern Lights Cheerleading have launched their own efforts to support the Monadnock Restaurant Project movement.

“These cards are not gifts but a call to action,” said Luca Paris, owner of Luca's Mediterranean Café. “We anticipate that community members will spend at least twice the amount of what their gift card is worth, doubling the project’s impact by infusing $60,000 to these cash-strapped businesses. The more we spend locally, the more dollars we reinvest in our local economy!”

Learn more about the Monadnock Restaurant Project at tlcmonadnock.com/stimulus.

The Local Crowd Monadnock

The Local Crowd Monadnock is a community-based crowdfunding program helping start-up ventures, early-growth stage companies, and community-focused projects find access to capital. Since TLC Monadnock launched in March 2017, twenty-six crowdfunding campaigns have collectively raised over $230,000 from 1,990 supporters: tlcmonadnock.com.

Culinary Journeys

Culinary Journeys offers scholarships to culinary arts students from the Cheshire Career Center at Keene High School. Learn more on their Facebook Page.

Food Connects

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 115 local farms and food producers to over 195 buyers in southeast Vermont, southwest New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts. Their educational services focus 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. Additionally, Food Connects is frequently hired to provide leadership and consulting services for efforts aimed at transforming local food systems in the New England region: foodconnects.org.

Restaurants to Receive Homegrown Stimulus Program this Winter

Eat, Drink and Build Community

KEENE, NH - The Local Crowd Monadnock, Culinary Journeys, and Food Connects will partner to launch The Monadnock Restaurant Project, a homegrown stimulus effort. On February 3, 2021, from 12 p.m - 12:30 p.m., organizers will hold a press conference to introduce this project and answer questions. To receive a link, please register here.

Missed the press conference? View it here!

This project will invest $10,000 and purchase gift cards from participating locally-owned restaurants. Organizers plan to strategically disperse these gift cards to community members who will spend these cards quickly, providing an immediate shot in the arm to Keene's local economy this winter.

"It could be a really rough few months for our fellow restaurateurs and if we don't do something soon, we could lose some of the businesses on the edge," said Luca Paris, owner of Luca's Mediterranean Café. "We can’t wait for someone else to help us. Eat, drink and build community! Let's do this as a community—quickly and safely."

Organizers anticipate that community members will spend twice the amount of their gift cards when redeemed, doubling the impact of this project by infusing $20,000 to these cash-strapped businesses.

According to the Monadnock Indie Impact Study, locally-owned retailers return 62.4% of their revenue to the local economy, while national chain retailers return just 13.6% of revenue—meaning that locally owned businesses return over 4x more money to the local economy compared to chain retailers. Dispersing $10,000 in gift cards will lead to at least $40,000 in economic activity, an immediate stimulus that can be replicated in other parts of the region.

Learn more at tlcmonadnock.com/stimulus.

The Local Crowd Monadnock

The Local Crowd Monadnock is a community-based crowdfunding program helping start-up ventures, early-growth stage companies and community-focused projects find access to capital. Since TLC Monadnock launched in March 2017, twenty-six crowdfunding campaigns have collectively raised over $230,000 from 1,990 supporters: tlcmonadnock.com.

Culinary Journeys

Culinary Journeys offers scholarships to culinary students from the Cheshire Career Center at Keene High School. 

Food Connects 

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 115 local farms and food producers to over 195 buyers in southeast Vermont, southwest New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts. Their educational services focus 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. Additionally, Food Connects is frequently hired to provide leadership and consulting services for efforts aimed at transforming local food systems in the New England region. 

Keeping Our Families Fed

Farm to School Cafe and Food Connects Feed Families Throughout the Holiday Season

Families in the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union (WNESU) received three free food boxes over the holiday break thanks to the tireless efforts of the Farm to School Cafe staff and farmers throughout the region. The food boxes contained a week’s worth of bulk meal ingredients for breakfast and lunch to help stretch families’ grocery budgets and keep students nourished over the long break. The Farm to School Cafe reached out to Food Connects to fill those boxes as much as possible with high-quality foods from local producers, including fresh NH-made bread, VT cheese and produce, and fresh fruit. 

Thanks to numerous USDA waivers in response to COVID-19, universal free meals have been in effect nationwide since last March and schools have been operating under the Summer Food Service Program—which provides higher reimbursement rates per meal for schools. These two changes combined translate to easy to access meals for all students and a reliable revenue stream for school nutrition programs. The holiday food boxes extended that support through the break, all students qualified for this program—each family simply filled out a form for each student so the Farm to School Cafe team knew how much food to order.

“We were inspired by the Burlington School Food Project who blazed the trail on these meal kits,” says Harley Sterling, School Nutrition Director for the WNESU. “And grateful to the Vermont Agency of Education who has been incredibly supportive in developing this program.”

“Many students rely on school meal programs for both nutritious breakfasts and lunches each day during school,” says Conor Floyd, Food Connects Farm to School Program Manager. “When school is not in session, however, a gap in access to nutritious and filling food appears. Programs like the holiday food boxes allow all students in the supervisory union to have the same access to meals throughout school breaks, no matter their family’s income level.” 

With increased meal flexibility as a result of the USDA waivers mentioned above, school nutrition programs have piloted new programs, including sending bulk ingredients home with students over extended breaks. These pilots often involve quick turnaround times and last-minute requests. Food Connects’ short supply chain and strong relationships with its producers helped the Farm to School Cafe access source-identified products from VT, NH, and MA on short notice.

"We're just thrilled that these universal meals programs allowed us to give kids and families in our community a little boost, especially this time of year,” says Sterling. “Making sure every kid has access to the great food grown and made in our area has always been our goal, and Food Connects makes it easy by letting us know what products are available and bringing them right to our kitchens."  

With less than two weeks between the initial phone call from Sterling and the first delivery, the newly expanded Food Hub team sprang into action. The Food Connects Sales and Procurement Teams worked with Harley to brainstorm and source a variety of food products that: 

• families would eat but also inspire fun and new cooking ideas, 

• fell within the required price range, 

• were kid-friendly and easy for parents to cook, and

• were hyper-local—the farthest items traveled only 87 miles while 7 of the 10 farms that provided food are located within 25 miles of Bellows Falls Union High School.

Once the orders were placed, the Food Connects Operations Team activated their network of dedicated drivers and expanded delivery fleet to pick up and deliver these orders—all while navigating their regular order and sales cycle to customers and capping off a record-breaking year in sales with Food Connects’ largest pre-Christmas delivery weeks ever. Although the Food Hub was closed for regular sales during the week of Christmas, the Food Hub staff generously volunteered to pick up extra shifts to ensure the orders made it to Bellows Falls Union High School in time for the Holiday Meal box distribution. 

As the Farm to Cafe team kept families fed throughout the holiday season, they also bolstered the local food economy—buying food from 10 Food Connects farms and food producers: Basin Farm, Champlain Orchards, Dutton Berry Farm, Grafton Village Cheese, Green Mountain Orchards, Harlow Farm, Mi Tierra Tortillas, The Bread Shed, Valley Veg, and Yalla Vermont. Over $19,000 was spent at these local food businesses. “This is money that is going straight back into the community,” says McKenna Hayes, Food Connects Food Hub Co-Director, “being paid out to area producers and distribution staff, who in turn use those funds at other local businesses.”

So what did families actually receive? 2,100 pounds of potatoes, 852 quarts of yogurt, about 6,000 apples, 600 pints of cider, 180 bunches of kale, 1,100 loaves of bread, 600 bags of frozen blueberries, 1,416 pounds of carrots, 300 tubs of hummus, 400 blocks of cheese, and 300 tortilla packets.

Every box contained food as well as ideas for how to use it—providing students and families with educational tools to make easy, wholesome meals. “We sent out little educational activity sheets with simple recipes that anyone can do with just water and a microwave,” says Sterling. “From kale chips and cheese ("Mayan sandwich") quesadillas to baked potatoes and English muffin pizzas.”

“This is a great example of how our organization can collaboratively problem-solve to help our community,” says Hayes. “Harley relied on his partnership with our Farm to School and Food Hub teams and we leveraged our community-based networks and short supply chains to respond to the request quickly. It truly shows the successful ability to pivot school lunch services in the COVID-19 era.”

Radio Interview: We're All in This Together

Last week our Farm to School Program Manager, Conor, and Marketing Manager, Laura joined Teresa Healy on her “We’re All in This Together” radio segment on WVEW 107.7 FM. They shared about our amazing programs, initiatives like Everyone Eats! Brattleboro and the Taste of Food Connects, and how we can stand together to support our community.

Local Farmers: Feast or Famine—Monadnock Table Magazine

COVID-19 has and continues to change the landscape of local food. In response to new restrictions, increases in demand, and a myriad of other issues local farmers and food producers continue to prove their resiliency and adaptability. The Monadnock Table Magazine recently featured Food Connects alongside our partners Stonewall Farm, Tracie’s Community Garden LLC, and Mayfair Farm to learn more about our experience during these challenging times.

On Air: Help a Farmer Out—A Call to Action

This week our Executive Director, Richard Berkfield, joined Peter ‘Fish’ Case on Call to Action to discuss the importance of local food and farmers and how our communities can support farmers and farmers can support our communities. Listen in to this great interview today!

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.

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.

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.”

Food As Medicine

Could 'medically tailored' rural food program work in southeastern Vermont?

Posted Sunday, October 14, 2018 7:39 pm

By Chris Mays, Brattleboro Reformer

WINDHAM COUNTY — Two local men are dedicating efforts to see whether a successful urban program to bring "medically tailored meals" to housebound folks with illnesses could be mimicked in southeastern Vermont and rural communities.

"It's just two of us pounding pavement," said Marty Cohn, a public relations professional who is working with Roger Allbee, former CEO of Grace Cottage Hospital, on the initiative.

The idea is that illnesses with some of the highest health care costs — cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke — could all be connected to nutrition, Allbee said. He and Cohn visited Community Servings in Jamaica Plain of Boston in December to learn more about the "food is medicine" movement.

The nonprofit started about 28 years ago with volunteers setting up meal deliveries for victims of the AIDS epidemic. Now, it has 60 employees and thousands of volunteers who "cook and deliver meals tailored to the dietary needs of clients managing various life-threatening conditions" in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to a New York Times article published in August.

Community Servings worked with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School on a pilot program to deliver meals to housebound people. The organizations developed 15 menus geared to those with illnesses.

"They were able to make the matching," Cohn said. "So Roger and I are like, jaws are dropping, 'This is unbelievable. How come we don't know about this?'"

A study was released in April 2018, and a report from Community Servings following the study stated $2.4 billion was spent in Massachusetts on medical costs attributable to food insecurity in 2016.

"A growing body of research shows the promise of home-delivered meals to improve the health and well-being of homebound older adults," the report reads. "This research has laid the foundation for examining the potential of a more specialized intervention designed to meet the medical and nutritional needs of individuals coping with severe chronic illnesses, regardless of age, known as medically tailored meals."

While the average monthly cost of "medically tailored meals" from Community Services is $350 compared to $146 for Meals on Wheels, average monthly medical costs were $843 for consumers of the former versus $1,413 for those of the latter, according to the report.

A step forward

Meal delivery services, food banks and senior meal events are all good resources, but are not tailored to fit individuals' health needs, Allbee and Cohn said.

Allbee and Cohn began talking with Food Connects, a Brattleboro organization that delivers food from local farms to institutions such as Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and Grace Cottage.

"They're very into health and providing healthy food," Cohn said. "We said we want to take it a step forward and provide medically tailored nutritional meals."

He said Food Connects agreed to secure a $10,000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation for a study on the feasibility of a southeastern Vermont program.

Rep. Tristan Toleno, Windham-2-3, who runs a catering business and an intensive local cooking class for the Strolling of the Heifers, was tapped to see how a new meal delivery program might work in southeastern Vermont.

"The other thing we wanted him to look at, and this is the thing that was the proverbially cherry on the sundae: Not only are these people at Community Servings providing these meals. They have developed a training program so that the people who are working at Community Servings preparing the meals and all that are being trained," Cohn said. "So it's an economic development tool, economic training."

Cohn said a proposal he and Allbee put together was one of 21 selected out of 35 total submitted to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Tuck School of Business. Students were assigned to analyze how a program could be set up successfully in rural areas.

Cohn said both studies are expected to be completed by the end of the year. He is in talks with Community Servings about potential grant funding for implementation.

Fewer doctor's visits?

Allbee said the meals would cut down on doctor and emergency room visits. He pointed out that the illnesses the meals are tailored to are prevalent in older people and Windham County is one of the most aging counties nationwide.

"And the other thing that builds into this is, here's Vermont that decided it wanted to get all the Medicare money from the last administration to create an accountable care organization, OneCare [Vermont], to reduce hospital costs and the cost of health care," he said. "And this has been demonstrated to do it, but it's not being done in Vermont in this way."

Allbee recalled conversations with teachers from medical schools who did not spend much time on nutrition in their classrooms.

"I think that's changing," he said. "We never really looked at it as a way of reducing health care costs."

The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School advocates for policy reform.

"The Food is Medicine Pilot would be a critical and innovative step toward improving the health of some of the most vulnerable members of our nation through facilitating access to healthy and medically-appropriate food," the center said in a report. "Inclusion of this innovative program in the Farm Bill is an opportunity to underscore the powerful role that food — and by extension, our food system — can play in addressing some of our nation's most complex and costly diseases."

Allbee and Cohn said they have been in contact with the Vermont congressional delegation.

"We're just kicking up some dust and I think it's all for the good," Cohn said.

Reach staff writer Chris Mays at cmays@reformer.com, at @CMaysBR on Twitter and 802-254-2311, ext. 273.