ALBANY — The Green Mountain Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation has awarded a $5,000 grant to Green Mountain Farm-to-School (GMFTS) to support the purchase and delivery of local food for the Craftsbury and Albany food share program.
The deliveries will be facilitated by GMFTS’s local food hub, Green Mountain Farm Direct, that partners with more than 40 local farms and producers and serves as a mission-driven food aggregation and distribution service.
Food share program managers can order different local food products as they see fit to meet the demand they are seeing among members of their communities, delivered right to their door.
The items available for delivery range from fresh fruits and vegetables to meat, bread, dairy, eggs, and maple.
It is estimated that the number of food-insecure persons in Orleans County has risen 44 percent as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
The goal of this project is to provide these vulnerable populations with access to healthy, local food, preventing adverse health outcomes and nutritional gaps.
By sourcing 100 percent local food for this initiative, GMFTS says they are supporting the region’s small farms and producers, and keeping dollars in Vermont, as well as stimulating local economic recovery.
Farm Direct food has been distributing local food to the charitable food system in the NEK since March in response to the COVID-19 crisis and rising food insecurity.
To make a donation to the Craftsbury/Albany food share please contact Catherine Cusack at [email protected].
