click to enlarge - Courtesy
- Community Harvest of Central Vermont's brand-new Ford Transit 250 van
As Community Harvest of Central Vermont approached a decade in operation this year, the nonprofit had one big-ticket wish list item: a cargo van.
Since January 2014, the small staff and many volunteers at the Berlin-based organization have used their own vehicles to ferry hundreds of thousands of pounds of surplus food — much of it gleaned from central Vermont farms — to food shelves, senior and community meal programs, and other groups that assist those in need.
Longtime Community Harvest volunteer Cary Friberg of Moretown would often drive her car or truck to transport crates of greens or bushels of apples. Friberg's truck could hold more but exposed food to the elements. "Sometimes they'd say, 'Don't bring your truck. It's too hot out,'" she recalled.
Friberg was among almost 100 donors who pitched in recently for a brand-new Ford Transit 250 van to celebrate Community Harvest's birthday. The $57,000 vehicle was delivered to the nonprofit in early February. The climate-controlled van can hold 4,500 pounds of food, making transportation far more efficient and increasing Community Harvest's ability to "Help everyone eat local," as its brightly painted side panels declare.
One of the vehicle's first outings would previously have taken "two or three Subarus or a couple pickup trucks," said Community Harvest founding executive director Allison Levin. Plus, "We didn't have to worry about vegetables freezing. We didn't have to jam it in."
Need remains high even as the pandemic recedes, said Karen Hoskey, director of the Worcester Community Kitchen and Food Shelf, which received 2,500 visits in 2022 — up from 750 in 2019. Community Harvest's weekly deliveries "basically bring tears to our clients," Hoskey said. "I stand back in complete awe as folks pick up salad greens [or] cooking greens, or ask how to use celeriac. Nothing replaces fresh food."