BRATTLEBORO — Nutrition advocates are always urging us to eat our vegetables.
Supporters of local agriculture are always urging us to buy our food from local farmers and producers.
Both are worthy goals. But what if your biggest concern is simply obtaining food to eat?
What if you can't afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables? Or if you haven't a kitchen to cook in? Or what if your cooking skills are limited and you don't know how to prepare a meal from scratch, even if you have the ingredients and a place where you can prepare them?
The Brattleboro Food Co-op, the Brattleboro Drop In Center, and the Vermont Foodbank have joined forces in a new pilot program called Food For All that addresses all these questions.
The collaboration is a natural one, said Co-op Community Relations Manager Sabine Rhyne.
For years, the Co-op has been giving cooking and nutrition classes for children at area schools and at the Brattleboro Boys & Girls Club, but Rhyne said that “we've found that there are whole families that could benefit from this information - that it's not that hard to eat better and good food is not as expensive as you'd think.”
And the natural place for the Co-op to begin nutrition outreach sat only a block away.
Drop In Center Executive Director Lucie Fortier said the Vermont Foodbank had started an initiative to bring more fresh fruits and vegetables, plus meats and dairy products to the state's food shelves.
“We're trying to make healthier eating a focus, but we have clients who really don't know how to cook,” Fortier said.
Last fall, representatives from the Co-op, Drop In Center, and the Foodbank got together work up a proposal for the Foodbank's Fresh Pilot Program.
Fortier said that thanks to the Foodbank's prodding to apply for a grant and the Co-op's interest in doing more outreach, the Drop In Center received a small grant in January to start hosting cooking demonstrations and taste tests.
The program is important, said Hannah Pick, a southern Vermont field representative for the Foodbank, noting that local food shelves, community meals, and other charitable food distributions are no longer just a sometime thing in case of emergencies.
“They are now a constant in many people's lives, and so it becomes more important to have better food available for those who need it,” Pick said.
Just a taste
Rhyne said the cooking demos began at the Drop In Center in December, with two sessions scheduled every month. Pick said demos have also begun at the Putney Food Shelf.
Each session focuses on a simple recipe that can be prepared on a stovetop with ingredients that were on hand at the food shelf.
On this day at the Drop In Center, Pick and Co-op Education and Outreach Coordinator Vicky Senni prepared carrot-ginger soup and maple-glazed carrots for people to try.
“We're still trying to figure out a way to do this,” said Pick. “It's tight quarters in here for cooking, and it's always a challenge to find a really effective recipe that will expose people to some different flavors.”
“We'll take a survey before and after a demonstration to see if they like what we're making,” Senni said.
Senni said a recipe that was a hit in February was vegetable pancakes.
“People were going nuts for them,” she said. “They were super-easy to make. They're like potato pancakes, except that we shredded up other vegetables to go into the mix.”
“They're great finger food, and it's the kind of recipe where you can do your own thing,” said Pick.
As it was only a half-day of school in Brattleboro, a number of children were at the Drop In Center that afternoon. The kids who tested the samples of soup and glazed carrots liked them enough to have multiple servings.
“Kids get really excited about this,” said Senni. “They love the cooking classes and learning about fresh food.”
A bigger fix
Senni said she is frustrated that the schoolchildren she works with in area schools, some of whom she saw that day at the Drop In Center, just represent the tip of the need in Windham County.
“We're still not meeting people's needs around the county,” she said. “When you start dealing with hunger and food insecurity, you also have to address the bigger issues of poverty and economic inequality.”
She sees the Food For All program as a small and achievable step toward bringing what she called “food justice,” or making sure that all people have access to healthy and nutritious food, no matter where they live or how much they earn.
Rhyne said the Co-op is trying to do its part by offering regular classes on how to use the store's bulk department to buy staples at a lower price than pre-packaged food.
The Co-op is also offering a discounted membership plan to any person who receives government food assistance. A person can become a shareholder for $20 a year and get a 10-percent discount on all purchases except alcohol.
To continue receiving the discount, participants must re-apply each year and make another partial payment toward their shareholder account.
“For me, this whole program has been a journey of understanding,” said Rhyne. “A lot of working people are using food shelves to do their grocery shopping. It's going to take a lot of different programs to make a dent in this problem. But the more we can participate in helping service agencies, the more it helps everyone in the community over time.”