Intervale Center's Healthy City's Gleaning Project Partners with Vermont Foodbank to Fight Hunger in Vermont
For Immediate Release February 13, 2009
Media Contact
Judy Stermer,
Vermont Foodbank
802-477-4108
jstermer@vtfoodbank.org
Intervale Center’s Healthy City’s Gleaning Project Partners with Vermont Foodbank to Fight Hunger in Vermont
A new partnership has formed in the fight against hunger. The Intervale Center’s Healthy City’s Gleaning Project (HCGP) is now a partner site of the Vermont Foodbank’s Salvation Farms Gleaning Network.
Healthy City’s Gleaning Project and the Vermont Foodbank’s Salvation Farms Gleaning Network share the same mission—to glean surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste and distribute it to the food-insecure of our state.
Such a partnership between the two organizations means even more fresh and nutritious food for the more than 66,000 Vermonters served by the Foodbank and its network of 270 food shelves, meal sites, senior centers and after-school programs throughout the state.
“This new partnership between Healthy City’s Gleaning Project and the Vermont Foodbank will help ensure fresh produce for Vermont families in tough times,” says the Intervale Center’s Executive Director Glenn McRae. “Combining the innovative efforts of the Vermont Foodbank, the community connections of the Intervale Center’s Healthy City Program, and the productivity and generosity of farmers in the Intervale and the region will provide a big boost to gleaning efforts in Chittenden County and across Vermont.”
“The Vermont Foodbank is thrilled to be partnering with Healthy City’s to ensure that more low income Vermonters have access to healthy, local produce,” said Christine Foster, Interim Co- Chief Executive Officer. “The charitable food system has seen a significant increase in the number of people requesting food assistance this year, and having another source of high quality food for those in need is vital to ensure that no Vermonter goes to bed hungry.”
Healthy City’s Gleaning Project is now the Vermont Foodbank’s third official gleaning site. Others exist in Lamoille Valley and Montpelier, although it is the Foodbank’s goal to replicate this model and implement it statewide.
About the Vermont Foodbank and Salvation FarmsThe Vermont Foodbank is the state’s largest hunger-relief organization, serving communities in all 14 counties of Vermont through a network of 270 food pantries, soup kitchen, shelters, senior centers and after-school programs. Salvation Farms is a program of the Vermont Foodbank whose mission is to harvest excess farm produce, establish state-wide local/community links between farms and Vermonters-in-need and provide a service and a viable business solution to Vermont farmers.
About the Intervale Center and Healthy City’s Gleaning ProjectThe Intervale Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to generating social and economic opportunities through land-and-farm-based enterprises, while also protecting the natural environment. The Intervale Center’s Healthy City’s program was founded in 2002 as a unique response to the need for job- and life-skills training for at-risk youth ages 13 to 16 and the need for better education about food in our local schools. The Gleaning Project secures produce from farms within the Intervale to be donated to non-profits, feeding the hungry in the local community. It has distributed more than 200,000 pounds of produce to the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf and ten other non-profit food providers to date.
