Building Systems & Partnerships

It has been two months since my last blog post - a bit longer than I had planned.  Let that be a reflection of the work being done and the progress being made.

My last post talked a lot about why we believe our work to build farm surplus management systems is important to Vermont’s strength and food independence.  This time I will share with you a little bit of our history and describe the progress we are making on developing programs. 

For eight years Salvation Farms has been developing and putting into practice methods for capturing Vermont’s farm surplus.  We have built strong relationships with more than 100 Vermont farms and have assisted with the capture of more than 1 million pounds of surplus produce statewide. 

Pete’s Greens before becoming a more formal nonprofit project under the umbrella of our once fiscal agent NOFA-VT. After several years of coordinating community based gleaning that served the greater Lamoille Valley region, we joined the Vermont Foodbank to integrate a gleaning program into their operations. Under the Vermont Foodbank, we built relationships with farmers as charitable food donors and increased their ability to source, handle, and distribute Vermont’s time sensitive agricultural surplus.

One year ago we started negotiations with the Vermont Foodbank that resulted in reclaiming the abandoned Salvation Farms brand and the creation of a new organization, one driven by the mission to build increased resilience in Vermont’s food system through agricultural surplus management. 

Salvation Farms is committed to the efficient rescue and integration of Vermont’s farm surplus into food access points that serve some of our most vulnerable citizens; the young, sick, elderly and hungry.  To achieve this end, we are developing the Vermont Gleaning Collective: a network of programs that actively engage community members in the responsible management of available food resources.  This statewide collective will consist of food focused organizations that already have a gleaning program or wish to incorporate one.  By creating a unified blanket of gleaning initiatives across Vermont that competently serves farms and is efficient in distribution, we can increase capacity in a collaborative way.

Our vision also includes the development of the Vermont Commodity Program.  We know from experience that much of the farm surplus currently captured is often lost prior to being utilized due to its time sensitivity.  We aim to create lightly processed frozen product for distribution to kitchens that serve Vermont’s vulnerable populations.  We hope to eventually produce some processed products that come in smaller pack sizes that would be appropriate for our state food shelves/pantries.  Salvation Farms has begun developing a partnership with the for-profit produce distributor Black River Produce, who can help us move large volumes of surplus to partner food processing sites.  Additionally, we are very

Department of Corrections, Vermont’s Correctional Industries and the Community High School of Vermont about incorporating an industries and educational component into Vermont’s correctional facilities to fill a critical role of light processing Vermont’s farm surplus.

We are committed to increasing Vermont’s food independence and are eagerly moving forward.  By maintaining the innovative leadership Salvation Farms is known for, we are building an organization specifically designed to aid in the capture of as much of the available Vermont-grown food as possible to ensure that all Vermont citizens have the opportunity to eat locally raised foods.

Please consider supporting Salvation Farms’ work; we can’t do this alone.  Visit our “How to Help” page to learn more.