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BF Neighborhood Market Buying Club
Fresh affordable produce can be yours through a new program at the train station in Bellows Falls. The BF Neighborhood Market Buying Club is hooking up folks in the hood, with local farmers and producers to provide fruit, vegetables, dairy products and baked goods for about 1/2 the price of supermarket produce.
This program is a spin-off from the Great Falls Great Food Community Conversations "Launch Committee" that meets twice a month at Our Place Food Shelf. The GFGFCC Launch Committee is a collaboration of Post Oil Solutions, Greater Falls Prevention Coalition, Our Place and the Green Island Project. The Committee has sponsored a Community Conversation Dinner once a month for the past year in the Compass School, Bellows Falls Middle School, Kurn Hattin School, Saxtons River Elementary School, and public venues in Bellows Falls, Westminster, Saxtons River and Athens and Parks Place in BF. The topics or theme have been different aspects of a local food system, and feeding ourselves fresh, healthy, affordable, accessible, growing and preserving our own food, and whatever the community brings to the conversation.
The Great Falls Food Hub involvement has brought the collaboration of the Windham Farm and Food Network, a nonprofit delivery service dedicated to providing healthy foods from local farms to over 35 institutions including Grace Cottage, the Brattleboro and Bellows Falls public schools, and now with this buying club program - to Cambridgeport through the D&R General Store, and now to Our Place and Bellows through this Community Conversation BF Buying Club.
Twice a month on Thursday, an order form of local fresh food, is distributed to Buying Club members, as well as the Bellows Falls Senior Center and Our Place Food Shelf. There have been two orders so far, and participation increased by 40% from the first order to the second order. On Friday, Gary Fox, the Buying Club Coordinator, logs on to WFFN's web site and places a consolidated order of all the participants' orders. The food is delivered on Tuesday afternoon, when volunteers Rose Smith and Gary Fox, meet the delivery and separate the case load wholesale food into people's orders. The fresh local food is provided by 26 local farms and producers and includes items such as eggs, organic chickens, yogurt, cheese, granola, bagels, bread, strawberries, broccoli, lettuce, chard, basil, cilantro, parsley and rosemary. WFFN accepts EBT Cards / Food Stamps.
The Windham Farm and Food Network was a demonstration program begun by Harlow Farm in cooperation with University of Vermont Extension, which works with communities across the state to support local agriculture and the environment, and promote economic development and community-building. Now operated by Post Oil Solutions, there is an advisory board made up of the farmer / producers such as Dutton Berry Farm, Basin Farm, Saxtons River Orchards, Old Athens Farm, Westminster Organics, Fertile Fields Farm, UVM Extension Youth Agriculture, The Gill Greenery, Orchard Hill Breadworks, Elm St. Bagels, Commonwealth Dairy, Back Roads Granola, True North Granola and others.
These farms and producers are all local (within a 20 mile radius) and small such that you can talk to the actual person who grew or produced your food. To find out how you can join the BF Neighborhood Market Buying Club, or become part of a new hood forming on the other side of the village to keep the program walking distance, call Coordinator Gary Fox at (802) 376-9534 or e-mail gfox@sover.net with "Windham Fresh" in the subject line. WFFN's web address is "www.windhamfarmandfood.org"
Space for Lease at 33 Bridge Street
Looking for an affordable manufacturing space to lease? SVG has several spaces available. Contact Gary Fox at (802) 376-9534 or e-mail gfox@sover.net for more info.
2011 Members – Time to Renew Your Membership
Please send the $10 membership fee to:
Sustainable Valley Group
PO Box 406
Bellows Falls, VT 05101
or go online at www.greenislandvt.org and click on PayPal from the home page.
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