Gleaning with Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund staff on Climate Action Day
Each year at this time we share that the past year has been the best ever and we’ve gleaned the most yet.
Guess what? 2019 was no different, only we made larger increases.
In 2019, Community Harvest of Central Vermont gleaned a record 55,164 pounds (16,442 more than last year) from local farms and growers. We also received another 12,602 pounds from the Willing Hands program of the Upper Valley, all of which CHCV donated to 10,000 Central Vermonters in need. These individuals received the food through our partnerships with 22 recipient organizations. A full list of partnering sites is on our website.
In all over the last six years, CHCV has donated over 243,616 pounds or 730,848 servings of nutritious fresh local food that otherwise would have been wasted.
“CHCV is amazing! They not only provide fruits and vegetables, but meat, eggs, dairy, and bread as well – a true cornucopia! The variety delights and challenges the children I feed, and they continue to grow their palates as I continue to introduce new foods as well as re-introduce foods they are still skeptical of. CHCV is essential to the well-being of our program.” –Elyse Gluck, Food & Nutrition Manager at the Family Center of Washington County
None of this would have been possible without you and all those in the community who partnered with us and supported our work this year, and for the past six years.
Thanks to so many!
We’d like to send a special thanks for the generosity of so many local farmers! Thanks in particular to Rogers Farmstead for not only donating milk, yogurt, and cheese, but also generously providing a home for our cooler building for the last four years. We would also like to thank Bear Roots Farm as our most generous farm contributor in 2019, and the other 35 farms and growers that CHCV partnered with in 2019 for the thousands of pounds of wonderful food they all donated. A full list of contributing farms is posted www.communityharvestvt.org/partners.
Partnering with all these great farms is only the first step of our work – once we hear that crops are available, we need help getting the food. 426 community volunteers throughout the 2019 season volunteered to harvest, sort, clean, weigh, track, and deliver produce. They also helped with administrative tasks, lots of Red Sox grant voting, and much more.
“As a volunteer for CHCV for six years, I have watched Allison’s vision of providing fresh healthy food to needy Vermonters become realized. I cannot imagine how different meals were for low-income Vermonters before partner sites had the fresh food that CHCV provides – CHCV has truly transformed eating for many people who could not previously afford fresh healthy food. Allison’s vision for healthy fresh food for all has expanded into a glorious part of the Central Vermont community.”–Cynthia Hatnett, CHCV Board Member
Thanks volunteers for the 2,259 hours and 3,333 miles you donated!
For a listing of our most dedicated volunteers in 2019 visit our website.
And thanks to all of you who supported our gleaning efforts with your financial and in-kind support. During the year CHCV raised more than $66,000 in donations from individuals, foundations, businesses, towns, and other partners.
A special thanks to the many businesses that sponsored our 2019 field gleans and market gleaning including Hunger Mountain Co-op, Northfield Savings Bank, Sullivan Powers & Co., P.C., and Vermont Mutual Insurance Group. A full list of sponsors is posted www.communityharvestvt.org/2019-update. Please let us know if your business is interested in becoming a sponsor in 2020.
Not only was 2019 an amazing year of gleaning, we received 63,000 votes to win the Red Sox Foundation grant, hired new staff, and worked with many large school groups. Read more on our website.
We look forward to building on all these successes in coming years with help from all of you. Let’s work together to help feed even more of our neighbors that have limited access to nutritious food.
