Many Steps, Many Helpers, Much Food

It is with a strong sense of appreciation that we celebrate some of our successes from the past year: 16,000 pounds of fresh food harvested in just a handful of Salvation-Farms-coordinated gleans and 1,200 servings of minimally processed frozen crops (like corn and apples) prepared for winter distribution, just to name two. For us these numbers seem small as we know the potential is much greater, yet they are significant as they are essential building blocks in designing the future of surplus farm-food management in Vermont.

The breadth and depth of the partnerships that make these numbers possible is a source of deep satisfaction for Salvation Farms. It’s a confirmation that the thing we’re working toward—a comprehensive, integrated management system for farm surplus foods—gets closer to reality each time we work with our partners. These include agencies and companies specifically focused on the food system and others less directly focused on that work.

What does this all look like? First step is collecting the produce from farms. Often, volunteers from the community fulfill this role. This fall, we partnered with Vermont Technical College (VTC) to further explore engaging incarcerated folks in gleaning. Working with several VTC representatives including the President, orchard manager and an AmeriCorps member, we worked through details and arrangements for leading a gleaning crew from the SE State Correctional Facility (SESCF). The crew met the orchard manager and gleaned with us all day in drizzling rain and breaks of sun.

Moving the produce is the next step – transporting it to the site we’ve identified as being a prime location for large volumes of surplus to be transformed into more manageable packages, SESCF. Another crew of men, those who are unable to work on supervised crews in the community, sort and pack the apples and other fall crops, working directly with Salvation Farms staff.

The “produce barn” at SESCF is only suitable for dry sorting and case packing, really limiting the volume and diversity we can move through the Vermont Commodity Program. We have been committed to raising the funds necessary to adapt this space: weatherizing, building a loading dock, installing a cooler, and bringing water into the space at the prison. We are SO close to breaking ground on this project – making this a fully functioning facility ready to manage much larger volumes of raw surplus crops.

Additionally, this space is not equipped to wash, cook, or freeze surplus crops, so those VTC-gleaned apples which the crew deemed edible but not fit to include in the raw case packs were sent north for minimal processing. Our Vermont Commodity Program minimal processing has been taking place, most recently, in the kitchens at the Food Venture Center in Hardwick. As we know, one bad apple can spoil the bunch, but with a kitchen we can work around the bad spot and save these “bad apples” too. Volunteer crews wash, peel, slice, package, weigh, and label in preparation for freezing and out of season distribution. It is our hope that the space at SESCF will eventually evolve into a space to do this work too. Read more about our vision in the current issue of The Local Banquet.

With frozen product, which we consider “pilot” products, we pre-arrange deliveries and product testing with sites in Lamoille and Caledonia counties. Meal sites, including Meals on Wheels of Lamoille County and the Craftsbury Community Care Center, incorporate the processed, gleaned produce into meals. We ask for feedback from the chefs and cooks in each kitchen, seeking how we can improve each product for the benefit of both meal sites and recipients who might get these frozen Vermont Commodity Products to prepare in their own homes.

We provide large volumes of raw, case-packed crops to sites that are capable of receiving several hundred to several thousand pounds, delivered via Black River Produce. In the case of the raw-packed apples from VTC, we sent them to the Vermont Foodbank, our first choice for highly efficient distribution of product into the charitable food system in Vermont. Recently, we have been exploring relationships with some regional neighbors, including Keene Community Kitchen and the Greater Boston Food Bank, safeguarding against the occasions when we bump up against Vermont’s capacity to move and use all the Vermont Commodity Product we have available.

An added bonus for us is when we are able to deliver produce directly to sites near the prison, right there in Windsor County. One of the recipients has been the School in Windsor.

"As a school system we have been very impressed with the level of volunteer support that we see in this organization. We are sometimes the beneficiary of the produce. This is a great organization in our community and a model that we can all follow." David Baker, Superintendent at Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union

The Vermont Commodity Program will find long-term success through 1) a co-created program with the Department of Corrections, 2) a State commitment to not waste farm-raised foods while residents of our state struggle to meet their food and nutritional needs, 3) mutually beneficial partnerships with for-profit and non-profit distributors, and 4) a statewide network of professional gleaning initiatives: The Vermont Gleaning Collective.

Salvation Farms sees that the first line of defense in managing Vermont’s farm surplus begins with gleaners and their service-based relationships with farms. Gleaning is a service to farms because it feeds more members of their own communities at little to no additional cost to their businesses.

As the Gleaning Collective rounds out its first year, we are establishing some baselines to evaluate our collective impact. As of the Fall Equinox, the combined work of the five organizational members of the Vermont Gleaning Collective (Salvation Farms included) met or exceeded the following:

40 farms served

180 individual volunteers were engaged and an additional count of 500 individuals gleaned as part of groups, i.e. Dealer.com, Green Mountain College

2055 volunteer hours

49 food access or institutional meal sites served, including Salvation Farms' Vermont Commodity Program and the Vermont Foodbank, which distributes to 270 programs throughout the state

50 crop types gleaned

78,000 pounds gleaned

This is, as they say, just the tip of the iceberg. When Salvation Farms and the Member Organizations (listed below) obtain the financial support necessary for scaling up the capacity and activities of the Vermont Gleaning Collective, there is no doubt that these numbers will increase dramatically and farm-fresh, wholesome food will become MUCH more accessible in both our state and the Northeast region.

Rutland Area Farm & Food Link (RAFFL)

Intervale Center

Helping Overcome Poverty's Effects (HOPE)

Community Harvest of Central Vermont

None of our successes stand alone, whether supported by farmers, fellow gleaners, Black River Produce, the Vermont Foodbank, the Vermont Food Venture Center, the Vermont Department of Corrections, or our mighty volunteers… Your support is making all of this possible. You encourage us by staying tuned to our updates, giving us shout-outs (it’s always exciting to spy our Salvation Farms sticker on a car bumper) and getting involved when we need your help.

It’s hard to ask for more, yet we realize that to sustain our vision we must fund the basics, like our office space, the telephone, and of course our small but growing staff. So, this winter our request is that you make an unrestricted contribution, providing the essential supports we need to successfully operate our programs.