In 2014, we piloted the VT Fresh program at 11 network partner food shelves. VT Fresh is a nutrition education program that aims to increase access and improve the availability of fruits and vegetables at community food shelves.
Vermont Foodbank staff:
- conducted cooking demos and taste tests at the pilot food shelves,
- helped change the food environment in community food shelves by increasing the prominence, convenience and availability of fruits and vegetables,
- reinforced core nutrition messages and affected fruit and vegetable consumption decisions by improving displays, signage and promotions of these products.
VT Fresh Participant Highlights
“Now the display is attractive -Our Place “The produce area has a farmer’s market ambiance, giving our consumers the feeling of ‘shopping’ in a respectful and positive way… The ability to market our produce more effectively has drastically cut down on waste.” – Capstone Community Action“The [program] allowed the JFS to double its storage capacity for farm fresh food… and provide better humidity control, increasing shelf life, and increasing safe food storage” -Johnson Food Shelf “Because clients can take fresh produce from the new shelves in the foyer/intake area whenever BADIC’s office is open, overall access is increased by a magnitude of 50.5 hours each week.” -BADIC“The food demonstrations were well received. We continue to get good feedback about how surprised recipients are about how easy and simple some of the recipes are. We have 3 volunteers who have taken on continuing the food demos.” -Putney Food Shelf You can read the VT Fresh pilot program report here (click the image to download): Learn more about VT Fresh here. Programs like this would not be possible without your support. Please consider supporting the Vermont Foodbank today!