At the Lincoln General Store, a can of beans or a gallon of milk might have an unlikely adornment: a pink heart sticker. It’s a subtle marker of a pay-it-forward program through which customers can take home food that’s already been purchased.
The pink hearts program, an initiative of a Lincoln group called We Feed Each Other, launched on June 10. Community members are encouraged to make tax-deductible donations to the Lincoln Community Trust or to buy extra food at checkout for the program. According to group member Jennifer Smith, who is also the general store’s manager, $4,200 has been raised so far.
The program began in response to many Vermonters losing federal food assistance benefits due to new work requirements passed by Congress last year, Smith said. We Feed Each Other members wanted to support food-insecure households, including those that earn too much to be eligible for government support but not enough to comfortably feed their families. The general store, already a community hub, “just felt like it was the natural place to execute this program,” Smith said.
Bill Perta, a Lincoln resident and We Feed Each Other member, said anyone can take home food labeled with a pink heart, no questions asked. That could be a community member who can’t afford groceries or a kid who forgot to bring cash for a snack.
“We wanted to minimize the stigma attached to picking up an item that’s free,” Perta said.
Some customers have cried tears of relief when they learned their groceries were paid for, Smith said. Others have donated money because they grew up with government assistance.
Smith said she loves watching kids pick up free food and contribute to the fund.
“The whole idea is so exciting to them,” she said, noting that many parents have taken the opportunity to teach their kids about generosity.
We Feed Each Other also organizes free community dinners, Perta said, and plans to create a food pantry. Smith said she hopes other towns will begin their own version of the pink hearts program.
“It just morphed into this beautiful space where people give and people receive,” she said.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Hearts Against Hunger”
This article appears in August 12 • 2026.
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