More Veggies for More Vermonters: The Food and Farm Initiative

Since 2012, the Community Foundation's Food and Farm Initiative has awarded more than $1 million in grants to connect Vermont's thriving local food movement with the fight to end hunger. We invite you to watch the videos below to learn a little more about two of the projects supported through the Initiative: Food Connects' local food buying clubs and the Center for an Agricultural Economy's pilot to bring lightly-processed produce from Vermont farms to Vermont schools.

Local Food Buying Clubs

 
Local Food Buying Clubs help families of all incomes access healthy, local food. The program, started by Food Connects in Brattleboro, is a part of the Vermont Community Foundation's Food and Farm Initiative. Since 2012, the Food and Farm Initiative has awarded more than $120,000 to Food Connects and partners to establish and run Buying Club programs at schools in Brattleboro, Rutland, and Newport. Learn more about Food Connects. 

Produce for Vermont Schools

In 2014, the Center for an Agricultural Economy piloted the sale of lightly-processed Vermont vegetables to schools, gathering and analyzing data every step of the way to help both farms and schools integrate them into their business models going forward. With support from farm-to-school organizations around the state, they distributed samples of the vegetables to 117 schools this spring and are now taking orders on the veggies the schools--and the kids--preferred most: broccoli, beets, carrots, and potatoes. Orders increased by 25% each month in the fall of 2014 and the project now supplies more than 2,200 pounds per month of vegetable to eight K-12 schools across Vermont. Learn more about the Center for an Agricultural Economy.