Macy Isenberg reported this story on assignment from the Bradford Journal-Opinion. The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.
Margaret Loftus and her family started Crossmolina Farm in Corinth more than a decade ago. From the outset, they wanted to join Vermont’s locavore movement and feed their neighbors.
So they took note a few months ago when an email arrived advertising a program by Farm Stand Together, a Ferrisburgh nonprofit, to give families struggling with food security gift cards to use at partnering Vermont farms.
“It seemed like it matched our morals and business model of making healthy local food accessible to everyone,” said Loftus’ son, Luke Campbell.
The Crossmolina team applied, were accepted and are set to join the program for the coming summer. People in the program will be able to use gift cards at the family’s store, Cookeville Market, or at least 10 other outfits that work with the nonprofit.
Over the past two years of partnering with farms, Farm Stand Together has provided over 250 families with access to organic food, its leadership says. This year the group hopes to expand the program to more farms and help more Vermont residents eat local food at a price that works for them.
Farm Stand Together aims to take the stigma out of receiving food aid in a way that connects people to local farmers, said founder Meaghin Kennedy. “My goal is to destigmatize shopping at a farm stand to make buying the local nutrient dense food the norm,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy started the nonprofit with her husband in 2021. Last year they worked with over 250 families, she said, and this year they expect to receive more applicants to match their wider range of partners. “Hopefully there becomes this groundswell of other shoppers who go into these specific farmstands, and they learn about Farm Stand Together, and it becomes more of a movement,” Kennedy said.
The program is for anyone experiencing food insecurity, and applications can be found on the group’s website for all of April. The number of applicants receiving gift cards and the amount on each card is based on how many people apply and their needs. Applicants will receive their cards in June.
“There aren’t any special coupons the applicants receive, there aren’t little coins they have to use. It’s literally a gift card that anybody would use,” Kennedy said, explaining recipients are anonymous. “It’s designed to empower, not make somebody feel uncomfortable.”
Participants can purchase anything they want with their gift cards — their options are all local and nutritious, and the money stays in the community, Kennedy said. “I’m not going to stipulate what they can use it for,” she said. “Anything at the farmstand is fair game.”
The team at Crossmolina Farm say people have grown disconnected from their food. “One of the things we believe in, in the farm, is the power of food — local food — to connect people to the land, to the process of how their food is grown and to each other,” Loftus said. “A farm can be a place that provides both that connection to food and the connection to people — feeding people in many ways.”
Her family opened Cookeville Market just before the pandemic, and it helped a gap during the chaos of Covid-19.
“People were really grateful we were here,” Loftus said. “We managed to get a lot of stuff the supermarkets didn’t have. We only allowed one customer in at a time, so it was a safe, pleasant shopping experience.”
Efforts like the Farm Stand Together program could promote that idea of locals feeding locals, she said, and can give an extra boost to farms.
“When somebody — whether it’s the state, or NOFA, or Farm Stand Together — reaches out and creates a program like this, it does two things: It helps provide food for people who need it, and it helps support our agricultural economy,” Loftus said.
And it’s not just about knowing where your food comes from, said Kennedy.
“If you only rely on food from far away, and there becomes a shipping challenge or a natural disaster, then you’re out of luck,” she said. “But if you’re relying on food that’s grown locally, by people you know, that builds community awareness and community resilience.”