New Faces, Changing Spaces

It’s hard to pinpoint where my relationship with the food system and agriculture formally began. Growing up in the Boston suburbs, my Sunday afternoons were often spent at my grandparent’s house in the city of Somerville, MA. My Nonno, a Sicilian immigrant, had shoehorned an enormous garden into the backyard of their home and my Nona made full use of the resulting produce, feeding a family of five in real time and preserving the rest for winter. As it was explained to me, the best-looking vegetables were reserved for giving away to the neighbors, and the rest was for the family to keep. It was urban farming, long before that term was in my vernacular, and was based in a certain thrift and practicality that still impresses me to this day.

Moving to Vermont in the late 90’s gave me my first real exposure to agriculture at scale, and it was a time when the state of agriculture was a hot topic of discussion. GMOs, the burgeoning organic movement, the struggles of family farms and the growing awareness of the social and environmental impacts of factory farming were all on the agenda, and I was eager to get up to speed on the discussion. The more I learned, the more passionate about it I became. I first met Theresa at a planning forum addressing the labeling and regulation of GMO foods in Vermont. She had an obvious passion for the wellbeing of farms, farmers, and the community at large. She embodied an attitude that change was attainable through grassroots organization and sheer grit, and that we, as citizens in full, were responsible for shaping our own destinies. A few years later I ran into Theresa again and it was obvious that she had been hard at work. She told me about an idea that she’d been working on based around salvaging surplus and unmarketable produce from local farms and distributing it to our neighbors who were most in need. The fact that there was so much excess food yet so many people who could not access it was a connection that I had not made and was an eye-opener for me.

I remember the very early days, when Salvation Farms was run out of the back of a Subaru wagon, with the support of a few farms and all the muscle that Theresa could muster. It has been so satisfying to watch this organization grow over the years – expanding it’s reach and deepening its impact on both the communities of the Lamoille Valley and the state as a whole. The impacts of food loss, especially in light of the barriers to food access that affect so many, are starting to come to light in the national conversation. It is estimated that in the United States, over 21% of the food that is produced is lost before it makes it to our plates. This system wastes precious resources, restricts access to those most in need, and impacts the viability of small family farms. We have the power and the responsibility to steer this ship on a new course, and Salvation Farms is doing that work right now. Over the past number of years, I have been very fortunate to have worked for a few amazing organizations in Vermont’s agricultural sector. These opportunities have allowed me to make my work my activism, and in joining Salvation Farms I’m ready to continue working towards a better future for us all. 

The Studio Center in downtown Johnson has hosted writers and artists from across the world in residency programs, and fostered a global, creative community, yet has traditionally been a rather private organization within their local community. The new Executive Director, Elyzabeth Holford joined the organization in July of 2020 in the middle of the global pandemic, and amidst shut downs and travel bans. With her, she brought a vision of deeper engagement with the local community. The Studio Center knows the importance of local food and local farmers, and sees their soon-to-be newly renovated kitchen as an opportune environment to connect with the community. Elyzabeth contacted our Executive Director and a synergistic vision was formed. Both organizations will use the Vermont Studio Center kitchen, staff, and facilities to launch a partnership that supports food equity and workforce training.

Under the leadership of Kitchen Director, Liz Kauffman, the Studio Center will open the doors of their new kitchen space in early January. By mid-January, with the support of the Salvation Farms team, they will begin processing gleaned produce into frozen products for Salvation Farms’ distribution into the local community. By early 2022, once grounded in their new space and familiar with the flow of creating frozen product, the Studio Center hopes to launch a workforce training program. It is an exciting collaborative relationship that uses Salvation Farms’ expertise to support, train, and facilitate this work at the Studio Center. “The partnership between the Vermont Studio Center and Salvation Farms presents a unique opportunity to be a link in community food security, sustainability and access. We are excited to be a part of the circle!” - Liz Kauffman, Vermont Studio Center’s Kitchen Director. Both teams are grateful for the shared vision and mission, the geographical ease, and the assets and resources they can provide to each other and most importantly to our community.