Summer Tidings from Salvation Farms
A time of light and warmth, the summer always resurges hope and energy into our world and our work. Farms fields are abundant, days span longer allowing for more movement and activity throughout the day, and the newness of greenery truly alters how the world appears to us all (at least here in the Green Mountain State!)
This reemergence of vibrant energy can be felt on a staff and programmatic level here at Salvation Farms. Below you will hear about the latest in our work, from new program initiatives and partnerships to a revival of our Salvation Farms Aid event, a final push for a new home for our gleaning program as the season ramps, and how you can get involved in this deeply critical mission. Enjoy our summer updates!
Beg, Steal or Borrow performs Del McCoury Band
Rik Palieri performs Pete Seeger with guest Mr. Charlie Frazier
Craig Mitchell & Purple performs Prince
After taking 2020 off, the second Salvation Farms Aid benefit concert was held – building a foundation for this to be a Salvation Farms signature event.
With nearly 300 in attendance, the beautiful weather only enhanced our celebration of local abundance. Six incredible, local musical acts covered the well know music of artists like Pete Seeger, Susan Tedeschi, and Prince. The open air and community inspiring setting of Camp Meade ushered in the tremendous relaunch of this Farm Aid inspired benefit event.
Salvation Farms Aid hosted a Local Abundance area where ticket holders learned about event sponsors like Sterling College, chatted up Salvation Farms team members, placed silent auction bids for amazing Vermont products and experiences, and gathered knowledge from Vermont leaders in gardening, wildcrafting, plant based medicine, and local eating.
This event wouldn’t have been possible without the tremendous support provided by the event’s volunteer committee members, the musicians, the stage and sound crew, the businesses who sponsored the event and donated to its silent action, the ticketholders, and Salvation Farms and Camp Meade’s team. We are energized and excited for the next Salvation Farms Aid!
Check out this short Salvation Farms Aid video produced by Camp Meade. You won't want to miss the next Salvation Farms Aid.
While gleaning never truly stops at Salvation Farms, the majority of our field gleans are just beginning. We’ve reconnected with long held partners, made new farmer connections, said goodbye and hello to gleaning staff, and are helping start Vermont’s newest gleaning program.
With the growing season upon us, we’d be remiss not to acknowledge the toughness of last year. While many in Vermont were working and learning safely of from home, Emma Korowotny (now maintaining hiking trails in Vermont’s Green Mountains) was out in the community, on farms, working with volunteers, and delivering local produce to those who needed it most. Emma pushed through one of the toughest times in our collective history with diligence, perseverance, and grace. She put the needs of farmers and eaters front of mind as she led our gleaning program, supporting our partners through her commitment to serve and help others. For this, Salvation Farms is forever grateful.
Last fall, Salvation Farms conducted a regional infrastructure inventory project through our involvement with the Lamoille Valley Hunger Council. As a result, this winter, we partnered with Capstone Community Action and the Lamoille Area Health and Human Service Regional Command Center to provide thirteen grant-funded freezers to houses of worship and non-profits throughout central Vermont.
From Albany to Tunbridge and seven other towns in between, these freezers are storing frozen foods including meals from the Everyone Eats program for community members whose food stability has been impacted by COVID. The funds were collaboratively secured and the freezers collaboratively distributed – our community saw a need and worked together to fill it. Salvation Farms is proud to be rooted in such diverse and meaningful relationships and to be able to bolster creative efforts that build increased resilience in Vermont’s food system along the way.
With the arrival of a fresh field gleaning season, we welcome new team member, Kayleigh Boyle to lead our gleaning program. Kayleigh returns home to Vermont after years of farming in Massachusetts. She has settled in Craftsbury to begin her own small, no-till farm.
“I am excited to bring my shared values to Salvation Farms, an organization that positively benefits my greater community on many levels. As Gleaning Coordinator I have the privilege of being a part of the network of volunteers and staff working to help farmers feed more people. I am looking forward to the comradery of being out in the field with volunteers harvesting, boxing, and weighing produce in all kinds of weather!”
Salvation Farms is proud to be providing technical assistance to help launch Northeast Kingdom (NEK) Gleaners. NEK Gleaners is a project resulting from NEK Food Cycle Coalition conversations, a USDA grant, and hired consultant findings. Salvation Farms and the NEK Waste Management District have entered a partnership, committing to co-hosting a Harvest Against Hunger AmeriCorps VISTA member for a three-year period dedicated to building NEK Gleaners.
Many of you have been following the United Way of Lamoille County’s (UWLC) barn renovation to house Salvation Farms’ gleaning program. While the project has encountered some hiccups since its inception in 2018, great progress has been made through local partnerships in 2021.
In Vermont’s deep winter months, the Morrisville Rotary Club and UWLC launched the Polar Non- Splash – a chilly, pandemic friendly challenge to do an outdoor, winter activity in unlikely attire to raise funds for the renovation. The turnout was great - photos and videos shared on social media were paired with donations and challenges for others to get involved.
With strong UWLC leadership, a partnership was forged with the Green Mountain Technology & Career Center’s Construction Technology program. Students spent days cutting, sanding, nailing, deconstructing and reconstructing – hanging doors, framing windows, laying baseboard, hanging sheetrock – working and learning while giving generously to this community project.
Salvation Farms’ AmeriCorps VISTA member, Kacey, secured an incredible donation for the UWLC of all the supplies needed to paint the interior of the building from Morrisville’s Country Home Center. A few final touches will be needed prior to our move in this summer but we are excited by the recent development of a waterline being connected to the building. YAY!
So many helpers, hands, and hearts have moved this project forward, a project that will benefit communities throughout the Lamoille Valley and beyond. We look forward to engaging volunteers in this space and to having this location to advance our work of providing food to neighbors that is grown by farms in our community.
Salvation Farms thanks Kacey LaBonte for her excellent AmeriCorps service and for her leadership on this and many projects over the course of her year with the organization. We will surely miss her come the end of her service - which is so quickly approaching. Kacey connected with Salvaiton Farms' Community Relations & Development Coordinator Dani Smith to reflect on this moment in time.
Like any rural community, on paper ours seemingly does not have everything everyone needs to survive. The resources are scarce; the distance between towns or even neighbors can feel isolating. But when you look deeper, the shared mindset is not of lack, but of finding ways to continually support each other even through hardship. As individuals who both came to Salvation Farms as AmeriCorps VISTA members, rooted in service to a community that welcomed us with open arms, it is clear to us that Salvation Farms is in the business of abundance.
At Salvation Farms, we constantly seek to build upon and expand existing structures, while also creating new systems when necessary, in service of and to a vision that meets our needs while protecting land and livelihoods. Besides the sheer quantity of produce moved from farms into communities, we work with and in service to partners, supporters, ideas, and desires to shift thoughts into actions. We serve to connect the unobvious connections within the ecosystem of farmers, partners, and eaters; expanding everyone’s idea of what it means to build locally supported and locally nourished communities.
The social mycelium surrounding this work is expansive. The bountiful hope, joy, and progress that comes from collaboration, engagement, and excitement for our mission supports farmers and builds locally resilient communities. There is plentiful work to be done – we hope you will join us in our collective action today.
Here are a few ways you can get involved in our work, today!
Local and want to give back? Volunteer with us – gleaners and delivery drivers needed. Register at www.VermontGleaningCollective.org. Administrative or non-gleaning tasks more your speed? Visit the "Get Involved" tab to be added to our volunteer list.
Hats $20*
Tote Bags $15*
*plus shipping & handling
T-shirts $25*
(limited sizes)
*plus shipping & handling
Vermont Fresh Handbook $20*
*plus shipping & handling
Sport Salvation Farms wares and help promote our good work! We have hats, totes, and shirts (limited sizing). Contact danielle@salvationfarms.org to order yours!
Looking for ways to use your garden’s bounty or new CSA goods? Purchase a Vermont Fresh Handbook for recipes, storage tips, and information on a variety of vegetables and fruits.
Announcing our $30,000 Dollar for Dollar Summer Match
Pete with his daughter, Bee.
“At Pete’s Greens we believe that Vermont can feed itself. Salvation Farms knows this and, with us, questions - how prepared are communities to feed themselves?
Salvation Farms teaches people about local farms, local food, and seasonal eating. They advocate for and are helping to create a future where communities are increasingly fed by local farms.
Pete’s Greens wholeheartedly supports Salvation Farms – we ask that you do too.”
Help Salvation Farms raise $30,000 for a match from two generous donors – any amount is a great help!