Winner
Co-op: Hunger Mountain Co-op
Joseph Kiefer is the founder and current co-director—along with Martin Kemple—of Food Works, an organization dedicated to addressing the root causes of hunger and poor nutrition here in central Vermont, by connecting local growers to local human service agency clients and institutions such as hospitals, schools, and soup kitchens. The idea Joseph had 20 years ago, after he had set up the Vermont Foodbank, was to educate food service workers about procuring and preparing and preserving locally grown produce, in an effort to “shorten the distance” between farm and table.
Part of the strategy to sustain the local food connection has been to teach consumers—the vast majority low income or underserved elderly and child populations—how to prepare and enjoy local produce. The results have been astounding. Gardens and growing programs have been set up at numerous schools and at low income housing sites. Dozens of growers sell directly to institutions through the Farm to Table program. Cooking classes are ongoing across the state helping busy institutional kitchen workers make the shift to local food instead of relying on energy intensive food products trucked in from across the country.
Of course none of this would happen if Joseph didn’t have such skills in building bridges between community groups and individuals, getting them enthused about taking part in this new way of thinking, learning, eating, and living. The cooperators include numerous schools, where teachers, kitchen staff and administration all have to buy in to the program. Other organization to collaborate with Food Works too, as is the case in the Vermont FEED program where Shelburne Farms, and NOFA combine skills in teaching through gardening and food preparation. VT FEED is another of Joseph’s creation and many of the schools that use gardening for learning programs are guided by on of Joseph’s many curriculum books, written with Martin Kemple, such as “Digging Deeper: Integrating Youth Gardens into School and Community,” a nationally recognized volume. It’s safe to say that Joseph and Martin “wrote the book” in terms of integrating sustainable local food systems into communities and schools.
It’s hard to believe, but there is more. The Vermont Foodbank Farm, run by Food Works, grows twenty tons of produce per year for the Foodbank distribution system. There’s also the Good Food - Good Medicine nutrition program, and the summer garden camps. It goes on and on. Joseph loves what he was doing… cooperating with friends and strangers to provide something that he knows in his heart is good -- good food. Watching him fire up flatbread pizza at the recent garlic festival for a group of wide-eyed kids—easily encouraging several volunteers to help until all the food was gone— Martin Kemple turned to me and said “you know what? This is what it’s all about.” He was right. There was a microcosm of Joseph’s life work in that one special moment. I know that I learned that in so many ways, food does work.
