Farms helping food bank feed the hungry

By KATY SAVAGE
[email protected]
WESTMINSTER, Vt. — Evan Harlow just moved seedlings from the greenhouse to the ground for the first time this year — a sign that growing season is “well underway,” said Harlow, who runs Harlow Farm, the organic vegetable farm in Westminster.

Harlow Farm is a large operation that grows thousands of pounds of vegetables each year on about 200 acres of land.

This year, Harlow Farm will give about $30,000 worth of fresh produce to the Vermont Foodbank to help the hungry.

Harlow Farm was one of nine farms chosen to partner with Vermont Foodbank in its launch of its new program, called “Vermonters Feeding Vermonters.”

“Vermonters Feeding Vermonters” is paying farmers for fresh food. It’s part of the Vermont Foodbank’s larger goal to distribute 2.5 million pounds of fresh produce this year — more than double what the Foodbank provided five years ago.

“We have been rapidly ramping this up,” said Vermont Foodbank Director of Communications and Public Affairs Nicole Whalen, explaining the program will support both Vermonters and local farms.

The program is funded by more than $275,000 in grants and donations. Farmers are paid an average of 84 cents per pound of produce they deliver to the Vermont Foodbank.

Harlow Farm, like many other farms, has worked with the Foodbank for the past five years to donate vegetables that are no longer fresh enough to sell. 

This will mark the first time the farm will deliver fresh produce.

Harlow will give 2,000  to 10,000 pounds of broccoli, carrots, beets, parsnips, cabbage and winter squash to the Vermont Foodbank each week starting in late June and continuing until next spring.

“We want to provide (produce) to the community,” said Harlow.

Farmers were required to submit an application to verify they would be able to provide sufficient produce to the Vermont Foodbank. Harlow Farm’s yearly sales total about $1.7 million. It has partnerships with local coops and companies in state and out of state, making it an ideal farm for the Vermont Foodbank program.

“Harlow Farm has been an incredible farm partner,” said Whalen.

Evan Harlow expects this season’s first crops — lettuce and kale — to be ready the first week of June.

Other local farms selected for the Vermont Foodbank program include Dwight Miller & Son Orchard in East Dummerston, which will provide apples, and Dutchess Farm in Castleton, which will provide peppers.