In Bennington and Rutland counties, BROC Community Action has developed programs to make it easier for neighbors to put together nourishing holiday meals. Turkey tickets, a Holiday Shop, and creative thinking are filling pantries this holiday season thanks to help from you.
“Basically, the Holiday Shop has everything you need to create the Thanksgiving meal, or at least traditionally what we’ve found that folks typically ask for,” says Amy, the food program manager at BROC. BROC is a community action organization with two locations in Vermont that provides support services—including food shelves—for people with low incomes, and partners with the Foodbank to distribute food to local communities.
“So, it’s things like green beans, some shelf stable potatoes, we try to have cranberry sauce, mushrooms, stuffing, that kind of stuff…typically we don’t have butter, but butter is something I will kind of spoil everybody with for the Holiday Shop because it’s necessary in every single dish for Thanksgiving.”
Amy explains that the Holiday Shop doesn’t affect peoples’ regular shopping at BROC’s food shelves. Throughout the year, individuals shop either weekly or monthly at the food shelves based on their needs and abilities. Come the holidays, Amy says, BROC organizes the special Holiday Shops to ensure people have the extras they need to put together holiday meals. And those extras do include turkeys–each shopper receives a coupon valid for one free 10- to 14- pound frozen turkey.
“I fight tooth and nail for my turkeys,” Amy says with a laugh. “Typically, I start calling Caleb [at the Foodbank] at the beginning of September and ask when the turkeys will be in.”
For this year, Amy and the BROC staff are focusing on streamlining the existing Holiday Shop system and making some tweaks to meet the needs of a growing population of new Americans in the two counties.
“I want to make sure that we have everything and then yeah, to add in things for holidays that are happening for new Americans I think is a really great idea…” Amy says while looking over a long list of foods she’s been sourcing. “If we’re able to [find storage], then we will have halal meat that folks can choose from and that hopefully will help with their families for the holidays…because we’ll have African families, they’ll probably have holidays that they celebrate, so it’ll be interesting to learn a little bit more, from them, what they have that’s coming up around the same time.
That’s why they call it the ‘holiday season,’ because there are so many holidays happening at the same time.”
Everyone should be able to celebrate holidays and special occasions with the dishes and food traditions that are meaningful to them. That’s why your support of your neighbors and your community means so much, especially this time of year.
While all the preparations leading up to the Holiday Shop are a lot of work, for Amy, who used to run a restaurant before starting with BROC a few years ago, making sure there’s plenty of festive food to go around is worth it.
“I used to sell food, now I get to give it away,” she says. “It’s so much better, the giving is so much better than the selling!”
As the leaves fall, days shorten, and temperatures drop, many of us in Vermont are asking ourselves, “How long can I go before turning on my furnace, heater, or woodstove this heating season?”
All people deserve access to the basic human needs of food and shelter. We know the state of Vermont — our government and our people — can make the choice to shelter and feed everyone in Vermont.
Across the state, the Foodbank is sharing recipes and cooking demonstrations with visitors at fresh produce distributions. Together, we’re making sure more people in Vermont can bring home the fresh food they want and need, along with information on how to prepare and enjoy it.
