Monadnock Children’s Food Access Alliance wins grant to assemble a food access plan”

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Keene, NH – New Hampshire Children’s Health Foundation awards the County of Cheshire a $20,000 grant to fiscal sponsor a project with Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition (MFCC) and Healthy Monadnock, who will form the Monadnock Children’s Food Access Alliance. The Alliance will regularly assemble during 2021 to work towards a long term goal to improve the overall health of children in the Monadnock region.

The Alliance’s key objective is to identify opportunities for children and families to access affordable healthy food and increase participation in programs. This will be accomplished by conducting a comprehensive analysis of assets and gaps in present children’s food security programs, coordinating existing services and programs to increase program efficiencies, convening stakeholders (e.g., focus groups, listening sessions) to examine data and information, co-designing a plan with community members to fill identified gaps in programs and services, and enabling community members to access existing programs. Success of this project will mean that children in the Monadnock region have excellent health and easy access to nutritious food, regardless of their economic or family status.

The intent of this project is to help leaders design effective programs. Presently, food security and access programs in the Monadnock region are underused and little data exists as to why that is or if vulnerable people know about resources and assistance available. Numerous anecdotes in the region from school professionals and medical providers reference families cutting back or going into debt to feed their kids. Yet programs like SNAP, Granite State Market Match, and EBT benefits are underutilized. The region's food access providers and public health officials will be better positioned to help these people if they had more information about the people who need services and their barriers to accessing those services.

MFCC is the ideal organization to lead efforts to closely examine the local food system because it works with about 140 members to cultivate community action, connect people to resources, and foster relationships that benefit local farmers and public health. According to Roe-Ann Tasoulas, MFCC director, “Three of the Coalition’s goals tie directly into this effort: increase food production and consumption in the region, and provide resources and encourage advocacy for an equitable food system. Our members are passionate about healthy food and making it available to all Monadnock residents.”

Healthy Monadnock and Cheshire Medical Center’s Center for Population Health will support the Coalition’s efforts and provide technical assistance, network connections, and use of the Healthy Monadnock brand. It provides education and advocacy, oversight for public health projects, and supports the implementation of the Community Health Improvement Plan. Cheshire County government will provide fiscal sponsorship, and will manage the contractual aspect of the grant award and its subcontracts.

“Being a part of bring this project to fruition is what our work is all about,” says Tricia Zahn, Center for Population Health and MFCC board member. “It is energizing to know so many people in the Monadnock Region are passionate about food access improvements and to have our project ideas validated by an external competitive funder is no small feat.”

Funding for this project was made possible by the New Hampshire Children’s Health Foundation through a competitive application program for reducing food insecurity in children and families by increasing access to affordable healthy food.

The Alliance seeks stakeholder participation at their meetings and other various stages of the planning project. To sign up or for more information, contact Roe-Ann Tasoulas, MFCC Director at coordinator@mfccoalition.org or 802.271.4191

Radio Interview: We're All in This Together

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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.

Announcing the Taste of Food Connects

Food Connects will host the first Taste of Food Connects from November 1 to 21. This event brings together over 90 local businesses throughout the Windham County and Monadnock Regions to celebrate our vibrant local economy. This unique event is part Local Passport, benefitting local businesses, and part Silent Auction, supporting Food Connects’ annual fund.

The idea for this event came as a response to COVID-19 putting a damper on Food Connects’ initial fundraising plans for the fall. “Typically we’d bring together a number of local chefs to feature locally grown and produced foods,” says Laura Carbonneau, Food Connects’ Marketing Manager. “That just wasn’t a safe option this year. So we thought: how can we hold a fundraiser for our programming and support local businesses during these challenging times.” And the Taste of Food Connects was born.

So how does it work? From November 1 to 21, shop at any of the 21 participating businesses—when you spend $10 or more you can add a sticker to your passport. After three stickers you can be entered to win one of nine great prizes, including $1,000 to spend at local businesses or however your family needs this holiday season. Multiple passport entries are encouraged. 

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“The team at Food Connects hopes that this program will help encourage community members to shop at local businesses,” says Carbonneau. “We understand how COVID-19 impacted and continues to impact our community partners and we need to continue to fortify and strengthen our local economy. We are stronger together and the community needs us all to shop locally this holiday season.”

The culmination of this program ends with a 5 days virtual silent auction from November 16 to 20 to support Food Connects annual fund. Food Connects, a 501c3 non-profit, continues to grow despite these challenging times. Their Farm to School programming continues to develop unique ways to support schools through COVID-19 and leverage opportunities for increased food security. At the same time, the Food Connects Food Hub continues to grow and be a regional leader in fortifying local food infrastructure. 

“Our goal is to raise $5,000 for our programming,” says Carbonneau. “We strive to create healthy, families, thriving farms, and connected communities—we couldn’t do this work without the generous support of our community and donors. This is a great opportunity to get your holiday shopping done while supporting a great cause. The silent auction features amazing bundles of products and services from local businesses, encourages community members to shop locally, and provides us with the much needed operating revenue. Thank you to all of those who will support us through this auction.”

To learn more about the Taste of Food Connects head to www.foodconnects.org/taste-of-food-connects.

New Chapter’s Impact on Local Food Systems

 New Chapter®, a Brattleboro-based wellness company, is leaving a lasting impact on the local food systems by being Food Connects highest-level corporate sponsor. New Chapter’s® donations in 2019 have paved the way for the most successful first half of the year in Food Connects’ history.

New Chapter® was founded over 35 years ago to bring natural wellness to others. New Chapter® believes in the healing power of nature, and that’s why they are committed to using whole-food and quality ingredients to make their supplements. As environmental stewards focused on human health, New Chapter® works to increase accessibility to organic food, farming, and traditional herbal medicine. And as a Certified B Corp, they strive to use business resources to help solve social and environmental problems—in communities around the world where their ingredients originate from as well as locally right in Vermont.

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New Chapter® generously granted Food Connects $15,000 in 2019 to go towards the Food Connects Cooler Campaign. This successful campaign focused on the build of a new 1,000 square foot cooler and freezer space at Food Connects’ location at the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation business park. With the help of New Chapter®, Food Connects’ was able to successfully complete this campaign and have a fully operational cooler and freezer going into 2020.

New Chapter® and Food Connects have a strong history of partnership. New Chapter® has a history of philanthropic support of Food Connects, helping the organization through its infancy and into a thriving organization. New Chapter® is not only an incredible source of financial support for Food Connects but, it has also provided volunteer support over the years including event support and a New Chapter® employee sitting on the Food Connects Board of Directors. Additionally, New Chapter® supports the food hub by purchasing food for its employee cafeteria and snack programs.

“Supporting Food Connects’ in their cooler campaign was an easy decision for us (New Chapter®) to make. Their mission of bringing fresh local food to those in need, right here in Southern VT, aligns holistically with our own mission and is something that we are proud to be a part of,” says Amerigo Pennoni, Director of Sustainability at New Chapter®.

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The cooler and freezer that New Chapter® helped bring to life is supporting Food Connects through one of its busiest periods yet. The demand for fresh, local food due to the COVID-19 outbreak increased dramatically. Food Connects saw an over 200% year-over-year increase in sales in April alone, typically the slowest month for the organization. Without this additional space, the organization would not have kept up with the growing demand. The additional space ensured that Food Connects could continue to provide food for local co-ops, newly thriving farm stores and buying clubs, and students, through innovative meals programs, while also supporting local farmers and food producers a consistent and secure source to sell their food.

“Food Connects is so grateful for the generosity of New Chapter® over the years,” says Richard Berkfield, Food Connects Executive Director. “Their continued commitment to Food Connects and our mission lifts up and strengthens our local food economy. Their partnership is vital to our work.”

Food Connects plans to expand its refrigeration space even further in the coming weeks to keep up with the increasing demand for local food during COVID-19. If you are interested in becoming a corporate sponsor, learn more on their website: https://www.foodconnects.org/sponsorship.

COVID Can’t Get Us Down

COVID-19, undoubtedly, impacts all of us—our communities, our businesses, our families, our farms, our schools. Our team at Food Connects is fortunate enough to still be in full operation, albeit under very challenging circumstances. We’re telecommuting, leveraging community partnerships to feed families, and hitting local food sales records.

But what does it look like with our boots on the ground? And how is our team coping with this new reality? This is your opportunity to get to know our staff, professionally and personally, and find out how COVID-19 has changed our lives.

Farm to School

Conor, Farm to School Program Manager

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In April our work with schools took a brief pause while teachers and administrations figured out what the rest of the year would look like. In the meantime, community collaborations quickly sprung up and our work with the Hunger Council intensified. By the end of April, most school FTS teams were meeting virtually as well, so things got fairly busy. We're continuing to support schools but also have a larger community organizing role now. I'm looking forward to a little bit less screen time this summer!

We've been working with the Windham Southeast School District (WSESD), the Vermont Foodbank, and Foodworks on the weekend foodbox program through the schools. We're also a part of the team piloting a new aid program in Brattleboro before it goes statewide. It focuses on putting restaurants to work feeding the food insecure in our community. Both are really exciting, but also true collaborations with all the messiness that accompanies them.

There's been a big emphasis on community and a collective reevaluation of what matters most. While not all our new habits and collaborations will continue beyond the pandemic, I'm hoping that the most important and strongest ones will stick.

I've picked up mountain biking which has gotten me outside a lot more! I've been reading a lot more and have an ambitious stack of books queued up as well. My partner and I recently went on a camping trip where we did nothing but hammock, read, and swim. 

I'm grateful to be able to work for an organization that has a direct role to play in our collective response to the pandemic.

Sheila, Farm to School Coordinator

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We are focused on supporting school nutrition professionals in adapting to the many changes that have occurred in school meals due to school closures, coming up with creative ways to address increased food insecurity for families in our community like the food box program, supporting Farm to School teams with garden planning this spring, and writing lots of articles to help tell the story of all the amazing work that is happening in our schools during these unusual times.

My hope is that our communities will come out of this experience stronger and with a better sense of what it takes to care for each other and nourish families in our community. I think people are more aware than ever of the important role that school nutrition professionals play in feeding our youth, and of the importance of a thriving local food system that is accessible to all.

I've been working from home rather than going into the office and balancing work with supporting my 12-year-old daughter with remote learning. It feels like a lot to manage! In my spare time, I am cooking a lot and spending lots of time with my husband, my daughter, and our 2 cats. I have become even more devoted to long daily walks and my circus classes (now online), and I am strengthening my meditation practice.

I have been actively seeking out beauty during my daily walks and photographing what I see, I am journaling more often, and my daughter and I are gathering rocks from the river and painting them with messages of hope and healing and scattering them on the hiking trails near our home.

I'm grateful for my health, my family, the opportunity to do meaningful work at Food Connects, and the joy that I find from spending time outside in nature and listening to music that I love.

Food Hub 

Nathanael, Food Hub Operations and Fleet Coordinator

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Since the COVID-19 epidemic hit the United States and New England, our sales volume has increased significantly at the Food Hub. This gave us the opportunity to hire more drivers and staff to help the Food Hub operate more efficiently and smoothly—a hugely positive thing for us. In terms of safety, we are implementing many new precautions—adding a bit of time to some of our routines. 

Currently, I'm researching information about another vehicle to add to our fleet. Our sales and delivery volume has gone up greatly over the past year, and even faster during the COVID 19 period, and we are running out of capacity to move local products. We're looking at a medium-sized truck to add to our fleet—something in between the Sprinter and the Freightliner sizes.

The pandemic gave the Food Hub a new opportunity to tangibly help our local community—whether that be the farms that we purchase from or the people who end up consuming the food we deliver. COVID-19 has really highlighted why short supply chains are so critical for food supply safety and continuity. I believe some of the upswings in sales we experienced will stick, even after the pandemic subsides. People appreciate what we do and the service we provide. In addition to these things, I believe our community has come together during this tough time to support each other.  

I've been busier than ever at Food Connects. We've hired a few new drivers and employees in the past few months, which allowed me to step away from some of the driving duties and focus on some other Operations tasks and projects, which is fun. My family lost our child care option for the spring and summer, which makes running our own small farm incredibly challenging. It's been stressful, but we're doing what we can to continue growing and selling local veggies for our community. It certainly feels more important than ever to continue doing so. 

I've been taking a few more hikes with my son, who is now getting old enough for such things. And of course, catching up on some house and farm work.

I'm so grateful for my wonderful wife and family, who have supported me through all of this change at the Food Hub, and are proud to see me out there supporting local farms and the community. I'm grateful for my Food Hub colleagues who are, without exception, amazing to work with through this challenging time. A weaker organization might struggle with this kind of new pressure, but I feel it provides us a way to come together and collectively figure out a way to meet each challenge on a day to day basis. It's truly an amazing place to work.  

I'm so thankful for Food Connects and glad to be an integral part of the local food system. It's truly an honor and feels like a meaningful pursuit. Not all people are fortunate enough to have such meaningful work. Hopefully, if anything positive comes out of this situation, it will be to highlight meaningful work for everyone and potentially shake up the system to allow more people to have these kinds of opportunities.  

Mary, Food Hub Driver

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As one of Food Connects newest hires for the summer season, I wouldn't be working for this organization if it weren't for COVID-19. As a result of the global pandemic I, along with all of Peace Corps 7,200+ volunteers, was evacuated halfway through my two-year service with the Peace Corps in Jamaica. Although a big change I am thrilled to be working for such an impactful community organization here in Southern VT!

I am grateful every day for my health, the health of my friends and family, the opportunity to be back in VT, and enjoying the state's gorgeous outdoors and to be working on such a wonderful team here at Food Connects! 

 

Alex, Food Hub Manager

I’m almost entirely focused on simply keeping up! As someone recently told us, the COVID-19 emergency has "lubricated" the wheels of the local food system, including at Food Connects. Local foods are in greater demand than ever for a lot of reasons, I think, including the fact that local and regional supply chains are able to bounce back and adapt relatively fast. Our sales of local foods are up, on average, between 2 and 3 times what they were last year at this time. For those of us working behind the scenes to interact with customers, maintain supply chains, and physically move the food from points A to B to C, all that means we have our work cut out for us to keep the wheels turning.

This means fewer projects and more daily responses. But, though we're behind as a result of the shift in attention, we're still pressing forward with updating our distribution and sales software system. We're also working on putting together export programs for Vermont cheeses and other specialty goods. Other food hubs around New England and the East Coast are in a similar situation—scrambling to keep up, scrambling to find supply, and introducing new products for their rapidly expanding customer base. We're trying to figure out how to help Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts products make it into those broader supply chains. 

This state of emergency is the best chance that we've had to prove what local and regional food systems can do, and it's a kick in the pants for us and others to "grow up," and grow up fast.

Working from home has blurred a lot of lines, but often in a good way—my 18-month old son is a bigger part of my weekdays than he was before COVID-19, even if that means just listening to him talking up a storm downstairs. And. after years of neglect, I've gotten back into cycling, to the point of mild addiction. We're also really enjoying spending a lot of energy on preparing memorable meals at home. 

I'm grateful for the Food Connects team who've given so much of themselves to the work of boosting local foods over the last few months. It's been a difficult time in many, many ways, but I'm very happy to see that Food Connects and the food system will, hopefully, emerge stronger than ever. 

McKenna, Food Hub Operations Manager

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My work as the Operations Manager with the Food Hub is much more intense; the stakes are higher both in terms of sales and customer expectations, but more importantly to me, in regards to keeping our staff safe and advocating for their needs to do this important work. We didn't stop during COVID-19, and continue to work hard to support our community. This requires our operations team to come into the warehouse everyday and for our drivers to be out and about picking up products and making deliveries even through the most intense periods of COVID-19. We implemented much stricter sanitation and safety protocols, and figured out how to adjust and manage immense growth on the fly, a hard enough task on its own, while also in the midst of the pandemic. 

We hired three new employees to help us keep up, and will probably need to hire more as the busy season approaches. I am working on systems development to help ease hiring and training burdens as well as organizational development as our team continues to grow. We quickly developed more efficient operational systems, both in our cooler and vehicles, to increase the capacity of products that we can handle and safely distribute. We only moved into our new cooler space in November, and are quickly learning the best ways to utilize it most effectively—we are not afraid to test out new ideas and adjust in real time.  

In a very strange way, the universe gave us a chance to step up and serve our community— to put our money where our mouth is and really prove the importance of our work. We always talk about the importance of local food and regional food and community systems, but this experience is putting that to the test. We provided food to our customers when larger, broadline distribution systems were struggling or focusing on serving their bigger, urban customers and we helped our producers pivot to access new markets. The pandemic has shone a very bright spotlight on the importance of resilient community and regional systems, especially food systems. 

My personal life has slowed down and become much more intentional. The weeks are high intensity, so I use the weekends to really decompress and hang out. It has been nice not having plans every single weekend and is a habit I will take with me into post COVID life-19. 

I recently purchased my first home and it has been fun working on house projects and setting up our gardens. We also recently rescued a dog—his name is Timer, he is 8 months old and loves to lounge in the sun just like me! 

I'm so grateful to live in Vermont and belong to this community! I am also grateful for the incredible team I get to work with here at Food Connects, I continue to be amazed and inspired by each and every one of my coworkers. 

My parting thought: Local Food is an Essential Service! 

Admin

Laura, Development & Communications Manager

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It’s been a strange few months since we received “stay-at-home” orders. I’ve transitioned telecommuting from my home in Keene, NH. I am fortunate to have the ability to do so with my work. As the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting our region, we were midway through a fundraising campaign focusing on improving food safety and market access for farmers. Thanks to the immense support of our community, we were able to exceed our goal.

And our communications work is now a mix of “business-as-usual” and new storytelling opportunities. We always share content supporting our local businesses and food access. Now we are in overdrive making sure we promote these programs and businesses, ensuring that the community has access to these resources and these businesses continue to flourish. We’ve pivoted some of our fundraising efforts to support unique challenges each program faces, we’ve worked to implement and promote a curbside pickup program for individual households, and I even did a stint working on sales for the Food Hub!

The pandemic is impacting our local food system in many ways. While there are more restrictions on farmers’ markets and restaurants are closing, we are seeing buying clubs form and farmstands and CSAs thrive. I hope that the support for local food and businesses, home gardening, and self resiliency continues after life gets back to “normal,” it’s actually been inspiring to see. Another silver lining? My work-life balance has significantly improved!

Transitioning to working from home was hard. I am extremely active in the local theater community and all 5 shows I was involved with were canceled or postponed. Since I’m home all day I’ve had a lot of time to recenter and focus on self-care. My gardens are thriving and I’m already working on preservation for the fall. I’m continuing to work out and have taken up boxing. And, I added two kittens to my home, Basil and Jenkins, courtesy of Karen! 

As an extrovert, I’ve had to find new ways to stay connected and I’m grateful for those opportunities. I’ve had socially distanced BBQ’s, participated in virtual Lions Club meetings, written letters to friends, and continue to reach out and stay connected. I’m also extremely grateful for the flexibility of my team while I, virtually, teach culinary and theater classes at a local summer arts camp.

Karen Sprague, HR Coordinator/Full Charge Booker

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Like my colleagues mentioned, our sales continue to increase. For me, that means the number of receivables and payables increase. I am working towards a bigger push towards ACH payments for our customers to easily make their payments. I’m educating myself to understand the restrictions and guidelines for business operations. It’s a lot of work keeping up with Government COVID-19 funding and protocols. And mostly, I miss seeing ALL of my co-workers in person and our chats in the hallways. 

I believe that because of COVID-19 there is now an increase in awareness of where food and other durable products come from. I hope this continues. 

Although my part-time work for Food Connects was not impacted in a negative way, my farmstand/retail sugarhouse business was closed and the financial impact was and will continue to be substantial until the country re-opens and people feel comfortable.

Because the farmstand was closed, I actually decreased the amount of baking (my biggest hobby) as the outlet for the sales was unavailable. Living on a farm, I am just spending more time cleaning and caring for the animals.

I am grateful that I live in an area that was not greatly impacted and my family and friends are all healthy.

And I want to congratulate ALL Food Connects staff. The Food Hub Team for working hard through this pandemic with positive attitudes as we increased our customer base and our local food producers. The Farm to School team for continuing to build strong relationships with local schools as they moved to bag lunches versus cafeteria lunches. Marketing and Communications for creating a continuous line of communication with the public in regards to the great work Food Connects is involved in with the pandemic. And our Executive Director, Richard, for leading us through this and continuing to find additional revenue sources, so that we may continue to grow and strengthen. 

Local Farmers: Feast or Famine—Monadnock Table Magazine

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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.

Food Justice is Racial Justice

To our Food Connects family,

We at Food Connects are devastated by the murder of George Floyd and countless other Black Americans at the hands of the police, and we stand in solidarity with People of Color throughout our country who are demanding justice. At Food Connects, we firmly believe that food justice is racial justice, and as a White-led organization we are committed to educating ourselves and to taking action.

Last year we formed an equity team that continues to examine our communications, looking at the language we use to talk about our work in an effort to be trauma-sensitive and equity-minded in all of our messaging. We focus on amplifying voices of People of Color and other marginalized people involved in the food system and are looking at the ways that our internal policies can be more supportive of our vendors who are People of Color or from other marginalized groups. Our Farm to School team promotes Food Justice curriculum and resources, and last year we hosted a professional development workshop to showcase the powerful Food Justice curriculum developed by Springfield educators.  

We recognize the value and leadership of our partners through these turbulent times, fighting for those without a voice and inspiring so many others to take bold action. We are inspired by local youth in our community who are bravely speaking up during these challenging times. We must stand together in solidarity and demand justice.

We want to share resources that our team turns to for education and inspiration, in the hopes our community will, in turn, find value in them:

Our nation is hurting. Together, we must dismantle systemic racism in our communities to begin to heal and realize food justice.

In solidarity,

The Food Connects Team

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

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 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.

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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.”

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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.

Food Connects Responds to COVID-19

Dear Food Connects Stakeholders, 

 We’re writing in response to the growing concerns regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. We acknowledge the serious concerns for the health and safety of our communities as the situation continues to develop. Our #1 priority during this time is to support our communities through continued access to fresh, local food.  

Our vision is for Healthy Families, Thriving Farms, and Connected Communities. Now is the time for us, and our community, to step up to realize that vision. We are inspired by our community, and by others across the country, who in the face of the coronavirus threat are stepping up and supporting the local food system in new ways. Food Connects works hard to build strong community partnerships in preparation for times like these.  

Local food is more important than ever. We will continue to work hard to ensure the safety of our food and decrease the miles it travels, reducing potential health risks. Our local food delivery service was designed to diversify product selection, ensuring our communities remain resilient to withstand national food emergencies. Now, it’s clear that our transparent, local food delivery system is critical to the safety of our food while keeping the community fed and small farms and businesses afloat in the face of COVID-19.

 

Precautionary Measures

 Food Connects Operations:

  • As of now, we intend to continue our day-to-day operations.

  • All non-essential employees will work remotely. You should see limited disruption in communications as we routinely telecommute.

  • We will continue to work with our local and statewide partners, remotely, to ensure our community continues to receive the food it needs.

 

Food Hub Operations

  • We modified our regular delivery schedule and routes to minimize direct person-to-person contact, while still ensuring we can provide food to our communities.

  • Our drivers will eliminate physical interactions upon delivery.

  • We intensified our food safety and handling hygiene practices and enhanced sanitation protocols along our routes and within our warehouse to minimize risks associated with product handling and transportation.

 

Farm to School

The Farm to School program shifted the entirety of its focus to supporting school meal programs. We postponed our Farm to School Conference and other professional development engagements until a later date. We continue to be a strong partner with local schools during this time of uncertainty. Through collaborations like the Hunger Council, we are coordinating the community response to support meal programs and connecting volunteers with the needs of schools. Once a coordinated response is established, we will do our part to address the logistical needs of food distribution. If you are looking for ways to help or need assistance meeting the needs of your community, we encourage folks to utilize the United Way Get Connected platform. This allows for an effective and coordinated volunteer response to community needs.

 

Community Resources

Looking for assistance or ways to help the community? Check out these resources below.

Monadnock Region community help during coronavirus by The Keene Sentinel - Facebook Group

Mutual Aid - Peace and Justice Center

New Hampshire 2-1-1 (or call 211)

United Way Get Connected

Vermont 2-1-1 (or call 211)

 

Moving Forward

It is imperative that our community stands strong together during this time. We are working hard with our local and statewide partners to continue supporting local businesses and feeding our community.

In the meantime, we ask that you continue to be a champion for local food. Ordering takeout or delivery from local restaurants helps them stay in business. Purchasing locally-grown produce at your neighboring co-op ensures that farms in our region can still thrive. Donating to food banks, school meal programs, and other meal delivery service non-profits guarantees our neighbors are not hungry.

Please let us know how we can help you through this time and know that we are taking the utmost precautions to keep you and our staff protected. We will continue to update our stakeholders throughout this process with any critical information we can provide.

 

Sincerely,

The Food Connects Team

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Growing Local Food Markets with Food Connects

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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.”

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“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.

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“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.

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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

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

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

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.”

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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!

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!