Farm Fresh Food

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Created on Thursday, 19 March 2015 21:45
Written by Rob Crupi

food buyingAround The NEK - Local farming is a mainstay of the Northeast Kingdom here in Vermont. And many local places that serve food such as local schools or even your local market try to emphasize that with their products.

    The St. Johnsbury School uses a number of local farms in the community to provide the freshest and healthiest food choices for their students. The St. Johnsbury School, and the Lyndon Town School are two schools who use the services of local farms. Although Lyndon Town School does not buy directly from local farms, they do however use the services of the Abbey Food Group who then purchase the food for the school from those same farms. The St. Johnsbury School on the other hand uses the farms directly, and even have some of the farmers come in and interact with the students.
    
    While it is hard in the Northeast Kingdom to farm in the winter because of the harsh winters, Carolee Stuart who is the Local Food Service Director at the St. Johnsbury School did mention how much the farms are used in the summer, stating:

    “During the summer we do get watermelon, melons, we get all kinds of squashes. Usually it takes me 3 farms to get enough to do one meal of squashes.”

    However, schools are not the only place to find locally grown meals.

    White’s Market is also a consumer of local, farm fresh food. Richard Coons of White’s Market also says that they too try to use as much of the nearby products as well. Coon’s emphasized that, “It’s a small family owned business, so we try to use the local farms as much as possible. It’s a little more expensive with the eggs and beef, but you know it’s coming straight from the farm.”

    Maybe using these local farms puts a little more dent in the pocket than some other options, but as a community, it no doubt helps financially. According to the official website of Governor Peter Shumlin, farming has a “4 billion dollar impact on the state’s economy,” and is also “responsible for 56,000 jobs (13% of the state’s workforce)…” statewide.