Theory in Practice

As Salvation Farms journeyed back out on our own last October, we had ideas about existing opportunities for creating smart solutions to managing farm fresh food waste while serving our communities’ need to eat. I couldn’t be more pleased with how we have been able to put our theories of untapped opportunities into practice this year. And what pleases me more is that collaboration with cross-sector partners has been obtainable.

Much of our energies went into sharing our mission and vision with stakeholders statewide, some of which immediately grabbed ahold of our ideals and assisted us in putting our theories into practice.

It is significantly important that we acknowledge and highlight the working partnership we have been fortunate to enter into with Green Mountain College that began in May of this year and is in its final stages. This relationship, highlighted in an earlier post, consisted of:

1. guiding the Rutland Area Farm & Food Link (RAFFL) through an assessment and refinement of their Grow-a-Row/Gleaning program;

2. sourcing donated/gleaned crops from RAFFL that were in too great a volume to distribute to community sites raw;

3. processing surplus donated/gleaned crops into different frozen product types, thus being the first stage of product development for our Vermont Commodities Program;

4. creating data tracking, inventory and distribution systems for this new product; and

5. engaging a handful of regional food shelves and meal sites in using these frozen food products and providing valuable feedback on the quality and ease of using the products.

We can’t thank Green Mountain College enough for asking us to help fulfill an obligation to Jane’s Trust, a foundation that supported the college in exploring light processing of Vermont grown crops through using the Vermont Agency of Agriculture's Mobile Flash Freeze Unit. Working with the staff was such a treat, as was aiding them in the continued refinement of processes associated with integrating their new Commercial Kitchen into the college and community. Thank you Garland, Sam & Philip! You invested in Salvation Farms and in the future of the Vermont Commodities Program, and continued your commitment to making Vermont a more food resilient state.

Rutland region sites that we were able to engage in product testing consisted of the BROC Food Shelf, The Open Door Mission, Rutland County Parent/Child Center, Boys & Girls Club, Poultney Food Shelf and Young at Heart Senior Center. Out of 84 feedback forms distributed we received 37 complete with feedback. The perspectives these sites provided will guide us in creating future products, appropriate package sizes and labeling for an increased ease of integrating product use.

We utilized eight different crop types, donated from twelve farms, totaling 1,471 raw pounds. When cleaned and prepped, the raw product available for processing weighed slightly more than 855 pounds; that is more than 2,565 servings of raw fruits and vegetables having a collective wholesale value of more than $1,410.

One objective was to determine ideal processing procedures for a diversity of crops; if the same crop is prepared with different processes is one product preferred over another. We asked about ease of use, how the product was used and what price a site might be willing to pay for products if they were for sale. It was also important for us to determine if any of the products that were produced with higher efficiency and lower overhead were those that received more favorable ratings.

Much of our feedback came from meal sites as this information was easier for the site workers to obtain verses trying to collect feedback from clients that access a food shelf and take the product home to prepare. Meal sites feeding children tended to be most enthusiastic about receiving, using and reporting on the product. They also tended to be more creative with the product too; they offered the most feedback on product utilization and suggested uses.

Our working partnership with Green Mountain College and RAFFL served as the perfect springboard for another Salvation Farms project we took coordinating leadership of in the northern reaches of Windham County at Harlow Farm/Westminster Organics.

Several individuals representing Harlow Farm, Bellows Falls Our Place Drop-In Center, Post Oil Solutions, UVM Extension and USDA Rural Development sat together one September afternoon to discuss how to retain regional farm surplus for winter use in serving the areas food insecure. It became quite clear to us that this was a perfect opportunity to get involved in further developing systems for processing surplus farm foods, engage volunteers in that process and continue testing our Vermont Commodities product.

This project allowed us the ability to test what knowledge we acquired while working with the talented folks at Green Mountain College while also working with increased volumes to see how the scale affects efficiency and cost of producing Vermont Commodity products. In total:

• 32 volunteers contributed 106 volunteer hours over the course of 5 weekends.

• Harlow Farm donated 4 crops (peppers, kale, apples & winter squash), that we processed and froze for winter use by the Bellows Falls Our Place Drop-In Center.

• More than 4,900 servings were processed.

We look forward to receiving feedback from these products as well as they are used throughout the winter in different prepared meals.

The success of this project could not have been achieved without the generosity of Paul Harlow, the dedication of volunteers and the commitment of Bellows Falls Our Place staff, volunteers and board members!

As proud as we are of the work detailed above, we are equally as pleased with the work we achieved in partnership with the Vermont Department of Corrections’ Offender Work Program, Tuberville, Black River Produce and the Vermont Foodbank; highlighted in our last blog post.

That project resulted in 31,290 pounds, more than 90,000 servings, of potatoes being funneled into the states charitable food system between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This was made possible by the labor provided by inmate work crews.

I’d like to leave you with a few quotes from inmates who helped us fulfill our vision for increasing Vermont’s capacity to manage the food we have here before we feed our vulnerable citizens with food from afar.