Farm-to-Table : Food Works at Two Rivers Center

Rebuilding a Regional Food System

The vision upon which the Farm-to-Table Program operates is simple but powerful: to make available to all members of our society food which is fresh, healthy, grown in a sustainable manner, benefiting the local economy, connecting us to our neighbors and to the soil itself. Food Works at Two Rivers Center has long been involved in education and activism concerning issues of food, nutrition, agriculture, and sustainability.

In 2003, we began an innovative program called Beyond Hunger to distribute fresh, locally-grown produce to elders eating meals at senior centers and other congregate meal sites throughout Washington County. Subsequently, an initiative called Eat Well, Score High began bringing local produce to area schools. These programs have now evolved into Farm-to-Table: a year-round, pre-order, subsidized program delivering fresh, local produce each week to close to forty meal sites serving those who are "nutritionally at risk." These sites include senior centers, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, community mental health programs, schools, and early childhood centers.

In 2006, more than $46,000 worth of produce was purchased at fair-market value from a network of over eighteen area farms and sold at variably subsidized prices to these sites. Additional produce was also donated to the Vermont Foodbank and area food shelves. Private grant moneys awarded to Food Works for the 2006 season enabled most sites to pay just 50% of the price the farmers receive for their produce. The result is a win-win situation for everyone involved. Seniors, children, and others dining at participating agencies and schools enjoy the nutritional (and gustatory) benefits of fresh vegetables. Local farmers see sales go up as a new market is opened to them. Workshops and networking opportunities provide food service directors with the resources and encouragement they need to utilize fresh produce and "cook with the seasons. "

A community begins to be recreated: people of all ages, and all social and economic backgrounds, connected by food grown and eaten here. As one elderly woman put it as she watched a box of particularly beautiful broccoli being unloaded at her assisted living facility: "This is why we still eat." And the wide eyes of the children at preschool as they watch the watermelons arrive from the farm down the road tell the whole story.