Each year, the Putney Food Co-op board of directors honors a member of the community for outstanding public service. This year the Carol and Lawrie Brown Award was presented to Hannah Pick at the co-op’s 73rd Annual Membership Meeting.

Hannah Pick is the Vermont Foodbank’s Gleaning and Community Outreach Coordinator for the Southern Region. She has been with the Foodbank since 2012.

She leads volunteers out into the fields of local farms, where they rescue food crops that have been passed over by harvest crews. Last year Hannah and her teams of gleaners captured 59,000 pounds of fresh, local food from the waste stream. Of that, 36,700 pounds came from Harlow Farm.

The Foodbank works with a network of 270 food shelves and meal sites to distribute this valuable nourishment to people in need, all over the state of Vermont.

Earlier this year, Pick also coordinated the “Places to Walk, Hike, Bike and X-Country Ski in Putney, Vermont” map, the first resource of its kind. Funded by a grant from the VT Department of Health, these maps have been printed and distributed for free in and around Putney, and are a valuable tool for anyone looking to get out and explore our town’s wonderful back roads and trails.

About receiving the Carol and Lawrie Brown Award, Pick said, “It was such a heartwarming surprise to be recognized for the two projects I’ve been working away at this past year. Putney has been a very supportive community in both the project of creating the map, and with gleaning.  A remarkably large percentage of my gleaning volunteers come from Putney!  I thank everyone who has generously supported this work.”

Congrats, Hannah! An award well-deserved!