2022 was another busy year at Community Harvest of Central Vermont (CHCV) with another 86,854 pounds gleaned from local farms and growers. The food we recover and donate reaches about 10,469 individuals in Washington County each year through our partnerships with 36 local recipient organizations. In addition, over the past few years we have developed our ability to collaborate with other Vermont Gleaning Collective (VGC) member organizations from around the state to move gleaned food to where it’s needed most. In 2022, we gave VGC members 6,206 pounds of food and received 36,257 additional pounds from them, adding both quantity and variety to what we could offer our local partners. Through our VGC partnerships in 2022, CHCV’s donations reached an additional 11,500 hungry individuals across Vermont.
In all, CHCV donated 128,758 pounds of food in 2022 to 21,971 hungry Vermonters in need. A full list of partnering sites CHCV donates to is on our website.
“Gleaning is such a brilliant idea. It’s a win/win/win – for families who may not have access to fresh local produce, for the farmers who have more produce than they can market, and for communities who are stronger when our population is healthier.” – CHCV Donor
Over the last nine years, we have donated just under 2 million servings of nutritious fresh local food that otherwise would have been wasted. None of this would have been possible without you and all those in the community who partnered with us and supported our work for the past nine 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 donating a home for our cooler building for the last seven years and now building us a big new space to rent. We would also like to thank the 47 other farms, home growers, and other food producers that CHCV partnered with in 2022 for the thousands of pounds of nutritious food they all donated. A full list of 2022 contributing farms and food donors is listed here: https://www.communityharvestvt.org/2022-thanks.
“CHCV skillfully takes on the challenges of food waste on farms and quality food access for everyone. We believe that everyone should have access to high quality, local produce, and we are grateful for CHCV’s work to make that goal a reality.” – Kagen Dewey, Littlewood Farm
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. 350 members of the community volunteered throughout 2022 to harvest, sort, clean, weigh, track, and deliver. They also helped with administrative tasks – there is a way for everyone to help!
Thanks volunteers for the 2,487 hours and 8,748 miles you donated. Pictures of all their hard work are at www.CommunityHarvestVT.org. For a listing of our most dedicated volunteers check out our 2022 Thanks.
“Volunteering for CHCV has made me feel more attached to my community. It is a way for me to give to the community that gives to me, and helps keep waste to a minimum.” – Beth, CHCV Volunteer
Thanks to so many generous individuals, foundations, businesses, and other partners who supported our gleaning efforts with your financial and in-kind support in 2022.
A special thanks to the many businesses that sponsored our 2022 field gleans and market gleaning including Community National Bank, Hunger Mountain Co-op, Jet Service Envelope Co., Northfield Savings Bank, Rogers Farmstead, Sullivan Powers & Co., P.C., Union Bank, and Union Mutual. Let us know if your business is interested in becoming a sponsor in 2023.
We could not have done any of this without your help, support, and dedication to our mission to bring our community together to make sure everyone has access to nutritious food.
We are so thankful for ALL OF YOU, our amazing community, that works with us to address hunger, reduce waste, and build a stronger community together!
We will be counting on your continued commitment in 2023 – a big year for CHCV. We will have some really big growth coming to fruition – a new cargo van, a new facility, increasing staff benefits and work/life balance, and our 10th year of gleaning.
Again, thanks for all your fabulous support in 2022.
