Food Connects Launches as a New Food System Organization: Post Oil Solutions successfully develops and spins off Farm to School program

Food Connects Launches as a New Food System Organization

Post Oil Solutions successfully develops and spins off Farm to School program

Post Oil Solutions (POS) is proud to announce the transition of the Windham County Farm to School program and related food system programming into a new organization, Food Connects. The transition better enables co-founders Richard Berkfield, Katherine Gillespie and Hanna Jenkins to expand programming consistent with Food Connects’ new mission: to cultivate healthy food and farm connections in classrooms, cafeterias and communities.

Innovative food system programming like Windham County Farm to School has been an important part of POS for the past five years and will continue to receive the full support of POS during the transition process and beyond.  POS continues to be a community organizing initiative whose philosophy is to support and launch new projects consistent with developing sustainable, resilient and socially just communities.

The Vermont Community Foundation has played a key role in the development of Post Oil Solution’s food programming and has awarded grants to the organization since 2008. In 2012, the Foundation’s Food and Farm Initiative—which supports work at the intersection of food security and sustainable agriculture to ensure that all Vermonters have access to healthy, local food—awarded just under $35,000 to Post Oil Solutions/Food Connects.

Food Connects works at this intersection through the three program areas of Farm to School, Farm to Community, and Farm to Institution. Their Equitable Food Buying Clubs support successful Farm to School programming by delivering locally-sourced food directly to parents in the school community. The food itself is purchased from Windham Farm and Food, an aggregation and delivery system that serves schools and other institutions in the Windham County area.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture’s commitment to Farm to School has enabled Food Connects to develop as one of three Farm to School regional groups, with the Upper Valley Farm to School Network and Green Mountain Farm-to-School. Funding from the Agency of Agriculture and the Vermont Community Foundation has enabled these groups to collaborate to share best practices and develop new and better programming. 

To learn more and get involved, join Food Connects’ first Seasonal Celebration, June 20th in Brattleboro from 4-6. To learn more, visit www.FoodConnects.org.

Post Oil Solutions hosts Community Meetings on the 4th Tuesday of every month at the Brooks Memorial Library. Refreshments start at 6pm. Meeting 6:30-8:15. For more info visit www.postoilsolutions.org