1. National Ag Week
March 15-21, 2015
A St. Albans Messenger special supplement
4B The St. Albans (Vt.) Messenger, Saturday, March 21, 2015
Why Celebrate Agriculture?
Agriculture provides almost everything we
eat, use and wear on a daily basis. But too few
people truly understand this contribution. This
is particularly the case in our schools, where
students may only be exposed to agriculture if
they enroll in related vocational training.
By building awareness, the Agriculture
Council of America is encouraging young
people to consider career opportunities in agri-
culture.
Each American farmer feeds more than 144
people ... a dramatic increase from 25 people
in the 1960s. Quite simply, American agricul-
ture is doing more - and doing it better. As
the world population soars, there is an even
greater demand for the food and fiber produced
in the United States.
What Is Ag Week All About?
Ag Week is about recognizing - and cele-
brating - the contribution of agriculture in our
everyday lives. The National Ag Day program
encourages every American to:
• Understand how food and fiber products are
produced.
• Value the essential role of agriculture in
maintaining a strong economy.
Appreciate the role agriculture plays in provid-
ing safe, abundant and affordable products.
GLEANING
FOR GOOD
It’s a modern practice, too, one that
takes place right here in Franklin
County. Andrew Judge, for instance, a
Swanton resident and the organizer of
Seeds for Growth, gleaned pumpkins and
squash from local farms and Halloween
households during the fall to be stored,
processed and distributed to local agen-
cies serving food to those who need it.
Judge collected about 9,000 pounds
worth of gourds, moved with the help
of Grunts Move Junk. Fortunately, local
businesses, schools and organizations
agreed to store the gourds in their base-
ments, though in December, Judge ran
into trouble. About half the squash went
bad, and the rest needed to be cooked up,
fast.
“I was scrambling,” said Judge.
Fortuitously, the University of
Vermont Sodexo food service was able to
help out while students were on break.
They cooked up several tons of squash
and pumpkins and packaged everything
up to be frozen and given away to local
non-profits.
Franklin Grand Isle region moving towards food system
S
T. ALBANS — Gleaning
goes all the way back to
the Bible, leaving left over
crops in the fields to be
gathered by the poor, widowed,
orphaned and estranged.
By ELODIE REED
Messenger Staff Writer
® See GLEANING on page 6B
SEE PAGES 4-8B
Andrew Judge, of Seeds for Growth and Kristen Hughes of the
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2. The St. Albans (Vt.) Messenger, Saturday, March 21, 20156B National Ag Week
“I was lucky,” said Judge.
“UVM, Sodexo gave me two
days and three chefs. It was
pure dumb luck.”
Judge, who’s interested
in not only gleaning but
planting his own field with
the seeds he saved from last
year’s squash, said he will
need a better, more reliable
system to avoid losing the
two tons of gourds he did
this past year.
“I’m one person,” said
Judge. “It also just depends
on what’s available.”
Kristen Hughes, who
spoke in a joint interview
with Judge on Tuesday, is
the coordinator for Healthy
Roots Collaborative and is
going to try and help Judge.
Hughes, whose posi-
tion is run through
Northwestern Medical
Center and focuses on unit-
ing local people with local
food produced by local
farms, is working on set-
ting up a gleaning network
for the Franklin Grand Isle
region.
“We’re looking at the
farms where there is a
ready waste,” she said.
Hughes said there are a
number of producers in the
area with this supply.
There are also plenty
of places where gleaned
products are needed: on the
shelves of food pantries,
senior meal centers and
other charitable organiza-
tions. Hughes said there is
a ready group of recipients
looking for fresh, local food
– there are 12 food sites in
this region alone.
With fields available to
be gleaned and recipients
happy to take the final food
product, what’s left to sort
out are the middle steps,
said Hughes.
“They still need a way
to have the product col-
lected, have the product
stored and have the prod-
uct processed,” she said.
“Fledgling pieces are kind
of falling into place.”
The storage part, for
instance, is already under-
way – a cold storage site
has been installed in the
former general store in
East Fairfield that has a
freezer, cooler and potential
root cellar. The site opened
up for use in the fall, and in
addition to local farmers’
use, Judge has also stored
some of his pureed squash.
As for processing and
distribution, though, those
parts are still being worked
out. Hughes said schools
could possibly play a role
in processing, though that
becomes difficult since the
processing time is during
the school year.
Distribution is also
tricky – probably the big-
gest obstacle for the region,
said Hughes.
“A lot of our distribu-
tion is currently done by
the farmers themselves,”
she said. That’s because
most farms in the are small
or medium sized – not large
enough to need refrigerated
tractor-trailer trucks.
Judge, for instance, had
to take many car trips to
get his gourds from field
to basement to kitchen to
plate.
The distribution as well
as the collecting part of
gleaning, however, may
be solved through join-
ing the Vermont Gleaning
Collective – the Franklin
Grand Isle region is the
newest addition to the
statewide network.
“They are helping
the northwest corner (of
Vermont) identify what our
needs are,” said Hughes.
People in this area now
have access to the Gleaners
Interface, an online tool
where volunteers can sign
up to glean local fields.
“The idea is that we’re
trying to build a pool of
volunteers and then have
a central way to communi-
cate news,” said Hughes.
“[It] would be a perfect
meshing.”
There are wrinkles to be
ironed out – gleaning, for
instance, requires skill and
presents a risk to farmers
of having their well-tended
fields damaged by enthusi-
astic but unknowledgeable
volunteers.
There is also the chal-
lenge of balancing this
deed of goodwill without
jeopardizing local agri-
culture business. Hughes
said the Vermont Gleaning
Collective is currently
working with Vermont Law
School to navigate balance
legal and labor concerns.
Despite the inherent
complications in setting
up any comprehensive sys-
tem, Hughes said all the
work should be worth it
when connecting local pro-
ducers to local consumers
becomes more efficient
and more food gets in the
hands, mouth and stom-
achs of more people in the
Franklin Grand Isle region.
“In a region as rural as
ours,” said Hughes, “we
really need to be working
together and not duplicat-
ing work.”
Hughes acknowledged
that farming is a tough
occupation with a narrow
margin, but those socially
conscious producers that
do want to take part in
gleaning have the chance
to make more connections
and do good for others.
“Right now it’s a won-
derful opportunity to get
more food to people who
need it, very simply,” said
Hughes.
She added, “We as a com-
munity are…”
“…open to that,” Judge
finished.
“…and very lucky,”
added Hughes.
-- -- --
Anyone interesting
in learning more about
the Vermont Gleaning
Collective and the northwest
region’s gleaning volun-
teer opportunities can visit
http://vermontgleaningcol-
lective.org.
Gleaning
continued from page 4B
ELODIE REED, Messenger file photo
Grunts Move Junk loads up 3,500 pounds of squash at Northwest Family Foods in October,
2014 as part of a new food storage, preparation and distribution project by Andrew Judge,
the founder of Seeds For Growth.
‘We’re looking at the farms
where there is a ready waste.’
Kristen Hughes, Healthy Roots
Collaborative
‘UVM, Sodexo
gave me two
days and three
chefs. It was
pure dumb
luck.’
Andrew Judge,
Seeds for Growth
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