Herbal vehicles such as teas, capsules, and tinctures are what most folks typically rely upon when administering herbs. Join local herbalist Julie Mitchell of EOS Botanicals to explore new ‘old’ ways to address issues such as inflammation, circulation, pain relief, and first aid through herbal and water applications and absorption through the skin. These techniques are rooted in many traditions and are especially helpful for small children and elders who have difficulty taking herbs by mouth. Recipes and demonstrations will be provided for a variety of ablutions, steams, sitz baths, vapor baths, nasal lavage, and hand and foot soaks. Please bring a large basin, bucket, or bowl, and a willingness to explore.
Advanced registration required. To register, please contact Denise at the Hannaford Career Center at (802) 382-1004. All classes are $30 or free for members of our Food For All program. Classes are capped at 12 participants. Enrollment is first come, first served.
Join your friendly farmer and butcher Ale Rellini from Agricola Farm to learn all about pork roasts. You will learn where each type of roast comes from and how to cook it. Ale will also share simple techniques to tie and stuff a roast that will turn a simple recipe into a fancy meal. You will also learn to prepare quick and easy recipes making use of the least expensive cuts.
Advanced registration required. To register, please contact Denise at the Hannaford Career Center at (802) 382-1004. All classes are $30 or free for members of our Food For All program. Classes are capped at 12 participants. Enrollment is first come, first served.
Ready to begin growing culinary mushrooms in your own backyard? Jon Turner of Wild Roots Farm in Bristol will be leading this exciting workshop where he’ll share an overview of the varieties ideal for your homestead operation, plus a hands-on demonstration for log, straw, and woodchip-grown mushrooms.
Advanced registration required. To register, please contact Denise at the Hannaford Career Center at (802) 382-1004. All classes are $30 or free for members of our Food For All program. Classes are capped at 12 participants. Enrollment is first come, first served.
Residents looking to get ‘ahead of the curb’ are invited to learn more about backyard composting, and what is and is not truly recyclable. Join the team from the Addison County Solid Waste Management District (ACSWMD) for tips on food scrap diversion including composting, and creating a more valuable blue bin for regional facilities that market our recyclables nationally and abroad. We’ll introduce special District programs for recycling plastic bags and film as well as other recyclable waste streams commonly generated in Addison County. Participants will receive a free kitchen collector for food scraps!
Advanced registration required. To register, please contact Denise at the Hannaford Career Center at (802) 382-1004. All classes are $30 or free for members of our Food For All program. Classes are capped at 12 participants. Enrollment is first come, first served.
The latest research confirms what your Grandma knew all along – cooking with animal fat is where it’s at! If you want to get re-acquainted with the wonders of cooking with animal fat, join local cookbook author Andrea Chesman to make and fry potato pancakes in beef tallow, make biscuits with pork lard, roast root veggies in duck fat, and use lard to cook potato taquitos!
Advanced registration required. To register, please contact Denise at the Hannaford Career Center at (802) 382-1004. All classes are $30 or free for members of our Food For All program. Classes are capped at 12 participants. Enrollment is first come, first served.
Round up your totals at the registers February 7-13. The Co-op will match your donation and pass it along to Addison County’s Turning Point Center. Read on to learn more about this incredibly important organization.
Turning Point Center of Addison County is a non-profit organization located on Creek Road in Middlebury. We are a member of the Vermont Recovery Network (VRN) comprised of 12 recovery centers statewide. The recovery support services offered through Turning Point Center help people rebuild their lives and engage in being productive members of society. We provide peer support, host recovery meetings, including both 12-step and non-12-step models, educational opportunities, recovery coaching and social engagement in a safe and supportive environment.
By focusing on our mission:
Providing peer-based recovery support to all; we seek to enhance the spiritual, mental, physical, and social growth of our community affected by substance use disorders and addictive behaviors.
We are able to move toward our vision:
A future where stigma and stereotypes are overcome by an empowered community focused on cultivating hope, support, and success for all people affected by the challenges of substance use disorders and addictive behaviors.
Our center often serves as the front door for addiction awareness. Turning Point staff, recovery coaches and volunteers help people explore and or identify their personal path to recovery. Whether seeking treatment, peer groups, social connections, resources to meet quality of life needs, information, or some other road to wellness; we provide a recovery community to welcome all.
Supporting Turning Point recovery center is an investment in reducing incarceration, recidivism and other social expenses. More importantly, it is an investment in creating a healthy and vibrant community we can be proud to be a part of. Donations are always welcome, recovery from substance use and addictive behavior is a community investment, your help is always appreciated.
Turning Point Center of Addison County | 54A Creek Road | PO Box 405 | Middlebury, VT 05753 Tel: 802-388-4249 | turningpointaddisonvt.org | tcacvt@yahoo.com
Our Annual Rally for Change for local food shelves, CVOEO and HOPE, starts on November 8th! Just round up your total (or feel free to give more!) at the registers between 11/8 and 11/14 and the Co-op will match your donation! What an easy way to do good this holiday season!
Hunger is not just an issue on the other side of the world. One in 5 children and youth in Addison County know hunger. Over 3,500 Addison County residents participate in the 3Squares VT program. There are more than 20 summer meal sites in Addison County. Senior meal sites serve our older citizens several times a week all summer long. This is a reality that our local Food Shelves, CVOEO and HOPE, confront every day. Food insecurity is right at home in Vermont, and no one works on the front lines to combat this in Addison County like our two local food shelves – CVOEO and HOPE. These two organizations spend a lot of their resources trying to get food to hungry Vermonters, but that’s not the whole story. Want to know more? Read on, to hear about them, in their own words:
The largest sector of individuals served by CVOEO is employed. They could be classified as underemployed or working part-time, but they are working. They are begging for more hours, hustling every penny and still not able to cover their bills. Using the food shelf is a necessity for these individuals and families. In the time period of 9/1/17 – 10/1/18 CVOEO’s Food Shelf in Middlebury served 1,896 households with 3,464 individuals in multiple visits: 745 of this number were under the age of 18, 730 were seniors and 1,063 of that number are people with disabilities. Individuals and families come from towns throughout Addison County. Donna Rose is the Food Shelf Coordinator. The Food Shelf is located at 54 Creek Road in Middlebury. CVOEO is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1965 to carry out the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 in the Vermont Counties of Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle. CVOEO is one of five Community Action Agencies in the state of Vermont. Its mission is to address fundamental issues of economic, social and racial justice and works with people to achieve economic independence. Its vision is to bridge gaps and build futures. To reach CVOEO, call 388-2285 or find out more at cvoeo.org.
Use of the food shelf has risen to an average of 650 people/month. Typically, 33% of people served are children, and 6.5% are elderly. Thanks to the generosity of our community, we are still able to meet the increased needs of food insecure households. Our farmers are amazingly generous, and our local food access program continues to grow, allowing us to provide fresh, healthy, locally grown food to people in need. This has a positive impact on the health of our clients, which, in turn, helps strengthen our community. One client recently told us he’d been able to lose over 60 pounds over a period of 9 months, due to being able to obtain fruits and vegetables at HOPE. Another told us that without our
food shelf she would be unable to provide sufficient healthy food for her small boys. Find out more at hopevt.org.
On Saturday, November 3rd, at 6 pm, Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op will host our 27th Empty Bowl Dinner to support our local Food Shelves – CVOEO and HOPE. This will be a small community event, coordinated and attended mainly by very local folks. You may be surprised to know then, that all over the world, at around the same time, people will be gathering for just the same cause. If you are interested in volunteering your time to help out at the event, donating a bowl, or making a dessert, please contact Karin Mott at karinmott@middlebury.coop.
“Empty Bowls” is an international project to fight hunger, personalized by artists and arts organizations on a community level. It was founded by Lisa Blackburn and Art teacher John Hartom in 1990-91 when they joined a drive to raise charitable funds in his Michigan community. Hartom’s idea was to organize a charitable event to give artists and art students a way to make a personal difference. Hartom’s students made ceramic bowls in their high school art classes. The finished products were then used as individual serving pieces for a fund-raising meal of soup and bread. Contributing guests kept the empty bowl.
Today, hundreds of communities hold some version of an Empty Bowls event. Their efforts support food-related charities around the world and have raised millions of dollars to aid in the fight against hunger. Although the sponsors of the events may differ widely – from glass blowers to churches to Co-ops like ours, their goals remain the same:
Raise as much money as possible to feed the world’s hungry people.
Increase awareness of hunger and related issues. Through education, awareness, and action, concerned individuals can change human attitudes that allow hunger to exist.
Advocate for arts education. Nurturing the creative process through the arts enhances the possibility of finding new solutions to old problems.
For 25 years, the Co-op has had the pleasure of collaborating with Middlebury Studio School (formerly, Frog Hollow) to help us pull off this event. Kathy Clarke has been particularly instrumental in coordinating dozens of local potters to create up to 80 bowls for us, each year. In addition, we have enjoyed the generosity of the Middlebury United Methodist Church, which has provided the venue for this event free of charge. In fact, virtually every aspect of our event is possible because of the generosity of local businesses, organizations, and individuals, from the local farms that provide soup ingredients to the local musicians that provide entertainment.
According to the U.S. Census, Current Population Survey, 1 in 9 Vermonters are dealing with food insecurity. This is a number well below the national average, but for 12% of our State’s population, the number is still too high. Please join us this year for our 26th Empty Bowl dinner and be a part of the effort to illuminate hunger in Addison County.
Buy Your Produce on Thursday, 10/4 – The Co-op Will Donate 30% of Produce Sales to Share the Harvest!
On Thursday, October 4th, 2018 generous restaurants, coops, and food stores statewide will participate in Share the Harvest by donating a portion of their day’s sales to the Farm Share Program. NOFA Vermont thanks these participants and all of the people who eat out or shop at participating establishments on this date!
Share the Harvest is a win-win scenario! Here’s how it works:
The public eats out or shops at participating businesses on the Share the Harvest date.
Those generous businesses donate to Farm Share.
The $ goes to our local farmers.
Folks (who might not otherwise be able to afford it) can join a local CSA and receive delicious, healthy local food!
If you own a restaurant, store, brewery, co-op, or other business and would like to be a Share the Harvest participating business, please fill out the form here
Many thanks to our print sponsor for this event: First Step Print Shop. Please consider using them for your next print job!
NOFA Vermont’s Farm Share Program is a great way that limited-income Vermonters can afford to purchase CSA (community supported agriculture) shares of fresh produce from their local farmers. Donations to the Farm Share Program go into a fund which helps subsidize CSA shares to needy Vermonters. NOFA Vermont believes that all Vermonters should be able to eat local organic food, regardless of their income level, while also making sure farmers get a good wage for their hard work.
Demand for Farm Share Program support is significant and a waiting list for CSA share recipients has been established. The Farm Share Program is funded by individual donations and by the annual Share the Harvest fundraiser.
If you know of a restaurant or food store who would like to participate in Share the Harvest 2018, please contact Becca Weiss at becca@nofavt.org or 802-434-4122 x 20
There’s a huge range of choices when it comes to winter squash, but acorn squash remains the most popular, only because that’s what everyone always makes. Join local cookbook author Andrea Chesman to learn about buttercups, butternut, delicata, acorn, red kuri, spaghetti squash, sweet dumpling, and turban squash and taste each one so you can learn which ones you like best. Then make a creamy chowder that has only a small amount of dairy, a winter squash risotto, a winter squash braise with apples, and a yummy baked dessert!
All classes are $30, or FREE for members of the Co-op’s Food For All program. For more information, or to register for classes, please contact Denise Senesac at the Hannaford Career Center by calling (802) 382-1004 or emailing dsenesac@pahcc.org. Please register at least one week in advance. Classes are capped at 12 participants and will be filled on a first come, first served basis.
