Some small nonprofits rely on bake sales, car washes or road races to bring in the funds they need to pursue their mission.
Members of the First Universalist Society of Hartland, calling themselves Red Aprons, have for the past three years offered their services to Upper Valley residents in exchange for donations to the church’s general fund, said Chuck Fenton, a member of the congregation who organizes the Red Aprons’ marketing.
Three years ago, a member of the community reached out to the church’s volunteers after one of their turkey suppers. The person hoped to have the volunteers coordinate a belated wedding reception for their son.
“That was kind of the start,” Fenton recalled in a phone interview last week.
Since then, the group of 15 to 20 has helped to host weddings, dinner parties and other events. They offer a “dine like Downton experience,” Fenton said, referring to the PBS British period drama, Downton Abbey.
They can plan the event, cook and manage the kitchen, serving and cleanup in exchange for a donation in an agreed-upon amount.
The goal is not to compete with caterers, but to raise some money for the church, Fenton said. He estimated the group brings in $10,000 a year through its efforts.
“We get a lot of positive feedback from our clients,” he said. “We’re all responsible adults … We have the capacity to take care of a variety of issues that come up.”
More information about the Red Aprons can be found on Facebook and on the church’s website, hartlanduu.com/redaprons.
Woodstock readers can find a measure of absolution through food donation this month.
Norman Williams Public Library will forgive patrons’ overdue book fines in exchange for donations of nonperishable food items during the month of December, according to a post on the library’s website.
To skirt the fines and help stock the town’s food shelf, patrons can drop off donations at the library. The post asks that patrons use their own judgment to determine the appropriate amount of food to donate in exchange for the fines owed.
The “Food for Fines” program does not include lost or damaged library materials or photocopying, faxing or other fees.
More information about the library can be found online at normanwilliams.org and information about the food shelf can be found at woodstockfoodshelf.org.
The Skinny Pancake, a Vermont-based chain of creperies that opened a Hanover location in the spring, released the results of its annual internal audit of its purchasing last month.
According to the results, the company is more than meeting its goal of purchasing at least 70 percent of the food it serves from local sources.
What “local” means can be tricky to pin down, said the restaurant’s co-owner and co-founder Jonny Adler in an interview this summer.
If there is an industry standard, that would be sourcing food products from within 100 miles of the restaurant, he said. At Skinny Pancake’s Hanover location, ingredients are sourced from growers in the Upper Valley when possible, with the restaurant widening its search in order to find the desired quality, volume and price points, he said.
In some circumstances, the Skinny Pancake might consider items to be local when they are sourced from farms located more than 100 miles from a restaurant — from Brattleboro to serve the Burlington restaurants, for example, he said.
In Hanover, 74 percent of the food served was purchased locally in the month of October, according to a post on the company’s website skinnypancake.com/2016/11/21/local-food-audit.
The Hanover location performed better in this way than the group’s Burlington waterfront location, which served about 72 percent local food. The Montpelier location beat them both, serving more than 76 percent local food.
In a recent email, Adler attributed Hanover’s higher percentage of locally-sourced ingredients relative to the Burlington location to the fact that staff in Hanover prep all of their food on site, while staff in Burlington partly rely on the chain’s Burlington-based commissary kitchen.
One difference was that the Hanover location purchased locally-grown greenhouse tomatoes throughout the month of October, but the Burlington location had already switched to conventionally-grown, non-local tomatoes for the winter season.
In its definition of local, the Skinny Pancake includes products that have value added in the region such as beer and coffee, in addition to produce grown nearby.
The Good Food Awards, a San Francisco-based venture that recognizes food products for their flavors and sustainable production methods, named several Vermont food products among the finalists for the 2017 awards.
The Vermont foods in the running for the prizes, which will be awarded in January, include some items produced in the Upper Valley: Brookfield, Vt.-based Fat Toad Farm’s vanilla bean and spicy dark chocolate goat’s milk caramel sauces and Windsor-based Blake Hill Preserves’ gooseberry and elderflower jam.
Both companies have previously won awards for their products. More information about the awards and this year’s finalists can be found at goodfoodawards.org.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for farm-to-school grants through Friday.
Funding is available in four categories:
Support service grants for groups assisting schools with farm-to-school initiatives
Implementation grants to help schools further develop existing farm-to-school initiatives
Planning grants to help schools organize the beginning of their farm-to-school activities
Training grants to strengthen farm-to-school supply chains and to provide technical assistance in local procurement, food safety, culinary education and integration of agriculture-‐based curricula.
More information is available at fns.usda.gov/fy17-farm-school-grant.
Vital Communities will faciliate a conversation about finding and retaining quality farm labor in White River Junction on Thursday from 9 to 11 a.m.
Upper Valley farmers Pooh Sprague, of Edgewater Farm in Plainfield, Suzanne Long, of Luna Bleu Farm in South Royalton, Danielle Allen, of Root 5 Farm in Fairlee, and Norah Lake, of Sweetland Farm in Norwich, will be joined by extension staff for a discussion of the challenge and possible solutions, according to a post on Vital Communities website.
The conversation, which will be held in the Yankee Farm Credit Conference Room at 52 Farmvu Drive in White River Junction, is funded through Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, a program of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
For more information contact Nancy LaRowe, Valley Food and Farm Coordinator, at 802-291-9100 ext. 106 or Nancy@VitalCommunities.org.
Wine drinkers of the Upper Valley will have a new spot to pick up their beverage of choice, and craft beer drinkers may also find something they like at The Wine Closet, a new wine shop located in the back of Scavenger Gallery on Main Street in White River Junction.
The Wine Closet will celebrate its grand opening on Friday with a 10 percent discount on all wines, owner Stacy Hopkins said in a recent email.
Offerings will include a range of wines, primarily valued at $20 and under. Most of the wines will come from Artisanal Cellars, a White River based distributor and importer that focuses on “quality, tradition and sustainability from organic, small, family-run vineyards.”
Scavenger Gallery has hosted, and plans to continue, tastings of wines from Artisanal Cellars at its First Friday art show openings. The wine shop cements the association of fine wine and fine art.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
