Salvation Farms is pleased to announce that we are in the process of becoming an official program of the Vermont Foodbank. For three years the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont has graciously housed our project allowing us to trail the Salvation Farms’ model.

In just three years we have gleaned more then 88,000 pounds of produce and distributed to more than 40 sites. Our work within the Lamoille Valley area has engaged more than 175 community members in gleaning and distributing produce as well as our promotional and fundraising efforts. We’ve also been fortunate to have worked with more than 25 farms and food producers.

Our participating farms and donations, our committed community and volunteers, as well as our generous financial supporters have all made the work of Salvation Farms possible. With them we have brought gleaning from conversations with soiled hands to conversations with Vermont Legislators and state agencies and organizations.

We all are making state-wide gleaning a reality.

Salvation Farms is also pleased to announce that our Co-founder and Director, Theresa Snow, has accepted the position of Program Director of Agricultural Resources for the Vermont Foodbank. Her primary responsibilities will include designing and overseeing the implementation of the state-wide Salvation Farms’ Gleaning Network, the activities of the Vermont Foodbank Farm, and the acquisition of Vermont farm products for Foodbank distribution.

To all that entrust Salvation Farms with your products, or those that depend on us to ensure a quality, nutritious, fresh food donation, or an individual, business, or foundation who has chosen to make an investment in Salvation Farms, Thank You!

The Vermont Foodbank truck meets Salvation Farms at
Riverside Farm in East Hardwick.

The Basic Human Needs grants program, the VCF aims to strengthen organizations and community groups whose mission it is to provide housing, food, shelter, and health services to vulnerable people. We will want to strengthen organizations that provide social services to children, the elderly, and other vulnerable populations. We are particularly interested in projects that build “social capital,” that is, programs that increase the sense of trust and community caring among groups of people and who use that “capital” to achieve improved social, economic, and environmental outcomes.

Salvation Farms tower of gleanings, in the early fall of 2007,
at Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury.

Since 2004 Salvation Farms has been able to utilized cold storage space at Pete’s Greens Farm in Craftsbury. During peak summer gleaning, Salvation Farms accesses this storage space up to ten times per week, often seven days a week, sometimes twice per day. Gleans from other farms are stored here. Deliveries are sent out from this storage site and the Vermont Foodbank truck picks-up donations from Salvation Farms once weekly from this storage site.

Currently Pete’s Greens has only one loading dock and cooler for produce storage. Most days the space between the dock and the cooler is busy with on-farm washhouse activities. These activities always take precedence over Salvation Farms activities. Pete’s Greens requests no payment for the use of this space. However, both agricultural enterprises feel the burden of distractions that are resulting in inefficiencies.

Salvation Farms is allowed roughly a 4’ x 5’ space to store gleaned produce. In any given week, Salvation Farms can glean twelve different crop types from up to eight different food sources as well as send out deliveries three to four times a week to over thirty different sites. Storing, sorting, and setting up deliveries, while keeping consideration for Pete’s Greens business, workers, and products, is often a challenge in this small space. Gleaning volumes are often dictated by the space available in this designated storage area.

Placement for a free standing 12’x12’ cooler, strictly for Salvation Farms use, will increase efficiently. Weekly three delivery routes start from this storage space and are made to all local donation sites. Donations during August average 1844 pounds weekly. Space to palletize donations designated for each delivery route will ease coordination for donation deliveries and drivers. On average, during August, the Vermont Foodbank received 740 pounds per week from Salvation Farms.

During the summer of 2007 the Foodbank was called to pick-up donations twice in one week for over 900 pounds each time. This had to occur in order to retain storage space to continue serving the farms who expected Salvation Farms gleaning service prior to our weekly local deliveries. When Pete’s Greens begins storing all of his winter crops Salvation Farms loses most of the storage privileges within the cooler. It is at this point that Salvation Farms must store produce within its office space under less then ideal conditions. Office temperature is kept low and gleaning must be arranged so that crops are stored for as short a period as possible before distribution.

Salvation Farms is honored and excited to have received these funds and looks forward to determining the best location for the placement of our own cooler.