Sustainable food systems on the table at UVM conference

articipants at a conference on sustainable agriculture in Burlington last Thursday were adamant about the need for change. University of Vermont Interim President John Bramley set the scene for the “Necessary [r]evolution for Sustainable Food Systems” conference.

“Our rural communities are disappearing, our farmers grow old with no prospects for retirement, and their sons and daughters have abandoned the farms and rural communities. Our nation is obese, and we’re dying of diseases related to poor diet and lack of exercise. Most people have no idea where their food comes from or where it’s produced,” he said.

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The cost of eating green: It's not as much as you think

Vermonters go to extraordinary lengths to see that their less-fortunate neighbors share in the bounty of farm-fresh food. Many of those transactions are invisible to the rest of us.

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Fixing A Broken Food System: UVM to Host Food Systems Summit

Many experts say that our broken food system is creating economic, environmental, health, and societal problems, resulting in a threatened agricutural landscape which challenges the sustainable production of food. To address these pressing issues, the University of Vermont will host its first-ever Food Systems Summit during the summer of 2012.  

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Brattleboro's summer food program in jeopardy

The Brattleboro Housing Authority is not going to able to host the summer food program this year, and now state and local anti-hunger advocates are scrambling to find a new group to run the popular program. BHA Executive Director Chris Hart said the organization has been so overwhelmed with rebuilding after Tropical Storm Irene, that they simply do not have the staffing available to run the program this year.

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Local chefs, caterers and a restaurateur look at what 2012 will bring to our plates

Vermonters are known as trend-setters in farm-to-table eating from local producers. They're proud of their agrarian roots and what their farmers produce in a short growing season. Some community leaders share their predictions for 2012. Among them, that localvorism will be refined, and re-defined.

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Vermont Foodbank launches "Nothing can End Hunger in Vermont" campaign

The Vermont Foodbank asks the public to do “Nothing” about hunger. Breaking away from traditional appeals, the Foodbank’s “Nothing” campaign evokes the desolation of hunger and offers something to do about it. Cans of “Nothing” – 14,000 empty cans with slots for collections – will be sold for $2.99 each at all Vermont Hannaford Supermarkets. Proceeds from the sale of each can benefit the Foodbank and help provide nourishing meals for Vermoners.

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Barre Town Passes Food Sovereignty Measure

The urbanesque Barre Town may seem an unlikely epicenter for a "food sovereignty" movement, but at last week's town meeting, residents quietly threw down the gauntlet for agricultural self-determination.

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Vt. food stamp use rises

Vermont continues to show improvement in its participation rate for the federal food stamp program, but advocates say it might be hard to sustain that growth in the face of cutbacks and an increasing need.

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Meals On Wheels Provides Link For Seniors, Volunteers

Some people don't have family to share the holidays with.  And many elderly and disabled Vermonters are isolated by frailty, illness or the weather. It's these people that Meals on Wheels caters to. And as VPR's Nina Keck reports the people who make and deliver those meals say it's a vital service that gives both ways.

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Vermont Public Television looks at hunger in Vermont

Vermont was been ranked the sixth hungriest state in the country in a federal government report last year. Twelve percent of households struggle to get enough food on the table and one in 20 Vermonters is labeled “severely hungry.” At the same time, many Vermonters face hard choices between buying food and heating their homes. Vermont Public Television’s monthly “Public Square” program, airing Thursday, Dec. 16, at 8 p.m., will look at these problems.

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More than 80,000 Vermonters Deemed "Food Insecure"

According to federal statistics more than 13 percent of Vermont households are classified as "food insecure."  Speaking on Vermont Edition, John Sayles, executive director of the Vermont Food Shelf, told VPR's Jane Lindholm that the designation refers to people who may be skipping meals and relying on food banks and food stamps to get by.

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Lamoille Valley council to address hunger

A new hunger council is organizing in the Lamoille Valley in response to the rising problem of hunger and malnutrition in the region. Using a model piloted in Washington and Chittenden counties, the new council will mobilize community leaders to identify the weaknesses in the nutrition safety net and develop remedies. More information is available from the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger at www.vtnohunger.org. 

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Forum pushes for focus on hunger

Vermont’s next governor will face a host of challenges — mounting budget deficits, an unsure economy, the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. But from the kitchens of beaten-down homes on the state’s back roads to the back rooms of apartments on the streets of Burlington, Vermont faces another problem, largely absent from day-to-day political wrangling — hunger. “I’ve seen a lot of empty freezers,” said Suzan Condon of the Central Vermont Council on Aging. “I saw one fridge that just had butter in it, and that was a dairy farmer! Nine times out of ten, our farmers are living in trailers, freezing to death in the winter.”

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Losing a leader, Vermont's poor seek a new public face

When Vermont anti-poverty workers learned of the death Monday of longtime advocate Edna Fairbanks-Williams, they marveled at everything the 77-year-old great-grandmother of 16 brought to the cause — and the humble, honest and occasionally humorous way she did it. For all their education and empathy, Shullenberger and most other social justice leaders lack such hardscrabble experience. Now that Fairbanks-Williams is gone, they fear the state has lost a valuable resource for connecting Vermonters with the human face of poverty. An estimated 65,000 Vermonters — 10 percent of the state's population — live below federal poverty levels.

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C&S donates food, cash to help end childhood hunger

C&S Wholesale Grocers has given $500, plus a sizable food donation, to assist the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger.  Officials with C&S have provided the necessary materials to the campaign’s Cooking for Life in the county, a collaboration between VTCECH and the University of Vermont Extension’s expanded food and nutrition education program. The program is a six-week course designed to provide local participants an opportunity to learn essential cooking skills and how to purchase an affordable, healthy meal. Once the program is complete, participants will take home the groceries they need to recreate the meals they learned to cook within Cooking for Life.

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