Vermont Way Foods: A Catalyst for Change

More than just a farm, Scott Farm is a piece of Vermont history. The farm, nestled in the woods of Dummerston, Vermont, boasts a 231-year history of innovative agriculture and social responsibility. It’s not unusual to see tourists and Vermonters picking peaches in the summer or apples in the fall from their orchards, some planted in the early 20th century, with over 130 heirloom varieties. Like so many farms, Scott Farm was hit hard by the pandemic, shutting down many public offerings like educational and informational workshops and Pick-Your-Own services. And like many farms, Scott relied on agritourism to keep the farm operating, but folks weren’t coming out as before. 

When Food Connects, The Intervale Center, Green Mountain Farm Direct, and The Center for Agricultural Economy formed the Vermont Food Hub Collaborative (VFHC), they thought of businesses like Scott Farm. In 2020 VFHC created Vermont Way Foods (VWF), a unique brand based on Vermont values. VWF will create new market opportunities for Vermont producers, supporting a robust and vibrant farm and food economy with the goal to break even and generate $12 Million each year in new sales for Food Hub members, farmers, and partners by 2025. 

We sat down with Matt Landi, Director of Brand and Business Development for Vermont Way Foods, to talk about the history of this unique collaboration. And to learn how VWF will support Scott Farm and many other Vermont small food and farm businesses while building a regional food system that reflects Vermont values and returns wealth to Vermont’s rural communities.

“By localizing the supply chain and diving into retail merchandising strategy in a more structured, cohesive fashion, you’re offering small farms the opportunity to participate in merchandising and promotional programs typically offered primarily by national distributors.”

— Matt Landi, Vermont Way Foods.

Food Connects (FC): Thanks much for talking with us, Matt. Can you tell us a little bit about the work you’ve been doing with the Vermont Food Hub Collaborative and Vermont Way Foods?

Matt Landi (ML): Yeah, of course! Thanks for this opportunity to talk about Vermont Way Foods. It’s a project I’m really excited to be involved with, especially right now. 

For decades, the four organizations that comprise the VFHC have worked in Vermont, supporting farm viability and food access and creating experiences for people to engage in the food system. In 2020, the four food hubs saw $6 million in cumulative local food sales. By working together, sharing infrastructure, connections, and decades of expertise, VFHC will have an exponentially more significant impact on Vermont’s food system—carving out opportunities for Vermont producers who are poised to grow their businesses and meet the regional need for local, sustainably produced food. Trying to compete as a small producer is tough. Of the many challenges, effective logistics, overall capacity, and a competitive cost structure are key areas of focus as the business scales. The cost is probably much higher if you are selling 20 lb boxes compared to 40 lb boxes because you have a specialty product, and it costs more to get it where it’s going. The VFHC is essential in supporting our logistical service proposition, vital to survival, growth, and differentiation. 

FC: Can you tell us a little bit about Vermont Ways Foods' impact on small businesses like Scott Farm?

ML: Scott Farm is a perfect example of a unique branding opportunity. No one else grows what they grow. They are dealing with antique varieties, it’s a multi-generational eating experience, and that’s a compelling story to tell the conscious consumer. If they had a big marketing department and a lot of money to invest, they could plaster marketing on a huge level. But they are a small operation, focusing on growing their heirloom apples, among other produce, as they should. Many are also rare because they are an outright challenge to grow. It’s very difficult to predict the crop's appearance year to year in a micro/variety by variety level. 

The orchard is a living organism. 

Heirloom apples aren’t uniquely Vermont, but they fit the mold of Vermont Way Foods. The VFHC is on a mission to help regional consumers find the foods and experiences they crave while helping to build a more just and sustainable food economy for Vermont. A food economy where our lands are working, ecological resources are sustainably managed, rural economies are flourishing, and our state’s food and farm culture continues to perform as a great economic multiplier for our tourism economy, small towns, and quality of life. VWF is the sustainable alternative to a global food market that incentivizes bigger, faster, cheaper, and easier. 

Food Connects and the Vision of New England Food Systems

When you gather with friends and family around food, what does that look like? Is there a diversity of dishes? Are there more fresh or whole foods than processed items? Where did the food come from—the grocery store down the street or a local farmer? These questions start you down the path to understanding more about food systems.

A food system, outwardly facing, is pretty simple—it’s the path foods take to get to our plates. But, at Food Connects, we understand it is much more than that. It is about the environment, health, equity and access, racial justice, sustainability and climate change, and so much more. And as we are continuing our work to transform the local food system, many people ask, “What does that really mean?” To answer this question, let’s look towards two organizations and their visions for food systems in our region and how our work aligns with these goals.

Image from USDA.

Let’s start small but mighty with the state of Vermont. Vermont Farm to Plate (VT F2P) recently published its 2021-2030 Vermont Agriculture & Food System Strategic Plan. In this plan it outlines three outcomes to achieve by 2030:

1. Increase sustainable economic development and create jobs in Vermont’s food and farm sector.

2. Improve soils, water, and resiliency of the working landscape in the face of climate change.

3. Improve access to healthy local food for all Vermonters.

Being a Vermont-based entrepreneurial non-profit and working with Vermont farmers, food producers, wholesale buyers, and schools working towards these outcomes are paramount to our organization. Our current work directly impacts the first and third outcomes. Our Food Hub works to expand wholesale markets for farmers and food producers, ensuring that Vermont food is on the shelves at local co-ops, on the plates at local restaurants, and feeding kids’ bellies at local schools. Providing logistical support, including sales and promotion of products and delivering the products to the wholesale customers to our neighboring farms, strengthens their ability to grow and thrive—and in turn, solidifies their place in our local food economy.

One of the specific focuses of the VT F2P strategic plan is on consumer demand. The plan recommends the launch of a Vermont Brand and Marketing Collaborative to improve marketing strategies—all the work to grow local farms and food businesses is futile unless there is demand for it. That’s where Vermont Way Foods (VWF) comes in. VWF grew out of years of collaboration between Food Connects, the Intervale Center, the Center for an Agricultural Economy, and Green Mountain Farm-to-School. VWF directly responds to the need to develop new markets for Vermont products. Vermont is a state known for producing high-quality farm and food products. As VWF grows, it will leverage Vermont’s unique position and align marketing efforts with new values-led consumer preferences (small-scale, transparency, integrity, and quality) to create and increase markets for Vermont foods.

All of this, in turn, ensures access to more local food across the state. As we distribute more and more local food throughout our community, it becomes easier for our neighbors to choose to eat locally and support farms and food producers in our region. Our Farm to School program continues to help schools access this local food through its work with food service directors, policy efforts to support Universal School meals, and the VT Local Purchasing Incentive promotion.

Broadening the scope outside of Vermont, there are region-wide efforts to enact change in our food system. The New England Food Vision held by Food Solutions New England (FSNE) aims to build the “capacity to produce at least 50% of our food by 2060 while supporting healthy food for all, sustainable farming and fishing, and thriving communities.” Their impending updated goal is to reach 30% by 2030. This work, again, is directly aligned with the Food Connects mission to create healthy families, thriving farms, and connected communities and is similarly reflected in the VT F2P Strategic Plan. FSNE holds four core values at the forefront of all food systems frameworks: the rights to food, healthy eating, sustainability, and community stability. As part of this transformation process for our regional food system to become more self-reliant, we must enact substantial change in food policies and embed these values at their core.

As Food Connects steps into 2022, we can ask ourselves, “How can Food Connects support these statewide and regional visions each day?” We commit to continuing the work and partnerships we have established, diligently working to find new wholesale customers for New England farmers and food producers and other food hubs that support their local food economies. We commit to advocating for food access and justice through our work with schools and statewide policies. And we commit to sharing opportunities with our neighbors on how they can be part of food systems conversations and change, inviting all individuals to participate in this work.

2020‌ ‌Reflections‌ ‌from‌ ‌the‌ ‌Executive‌ ‌Director‌

Wow! What a year behind us, and who knows what is in store for 2021. What we do know at Food Connects is that we are all grateful to have jobs and meaningful work and that our community needs us more than ever during this pandemic and with the disruption to the food system.

We are excited to share and celebrate with the community that we nearly doubled revenue in 2020, including $1 million of local food sales! That means more dollars in the hands of farmers in our communities in VT, NH, and MA and more dollars recirculating back into the local economy. We extend our deepest thanks to our farmers, food producers, wholesale customers, and our community for their widespread support! 

I am so grateful to the Food Connects team, which grew from 12 employees at the start of 2020 to 21 employees! I am so impressed with both the current staff in how they onboarded and trained the new team while doing their jobs, as well as the new team in adapting and getting up to speed quickly during the challenging times of COVID-19.

We continue to push hard on using our aggregation and distribution Food Hub to transform the regional food system. During the winter months, we are looking forward to bringing in source-identified food from real farms that may not fit everyone’s definition of local. What might be considered provocative, we see value in supporting local farms and supply chains that share our values of transparency, caring for the environment and people. Many of us are asking ourselves, “Would you rather eat broccoli from a family farm in North Carolina or a corporate farm in California?” and many of us are answering the former. Now it’s our job to figure out the logistics of making that happen and how that fits into our work ahead! 

We continue to play a leadership role in strengthening the entire food system, knowing that a larger effort is needed outside of our current programming. Our strong, sector-spanning relationships have proved crucial to the success of many of these conversations, and our ability to connect schools, farms, local businesses, and charitable food organizations has been a keystone in the region’s response to COVID-19. Programs we were involved with sprung up quickly; ranging from small, focused efforts such as the Weekend Food Boxes, to statewide initiatives like Everyone Eats! which first piloted in Brattleboro. As we head into the new year, reflection and thoughtful planning is a priority. We plan to convene a community dialogue, providing the space to breathe and think collectively about how to capitalize on and improve the new partnerships and systems which have sprung up over the past year. 

Our Farm to School program has developed a larger emphasis on food security in response to the pandemic, while still ensuring that robust farm, food, and nutrition education is supported in our schools. In the spring, we focused on ensuring gardens were planted and fully utilized as a refuge for families and students. This fall, we worked closely with administrators and food service directors applying for Coronavirus Relief Funding, maximizing the resources our local schools received.

This all of this means is that we are starting off 2021 with a bang and a clear focus on doing more of what is important towards our vision of Healthy Families, Thriving Farms, and Connected Communities.

- Richard Berkfield, Executive Director