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ACORN Farm to School Entrepreneur Awards 2012
Students! Are you growing your own food? Talking about nutrition in school? Have you turned your ideas into a business or a campaign–or do you think you could?
ACORN wants to recognize what students are doing to make Addison County a national leader on Farm to School and agricultural education.
Addison County students in grades 7-12 are invited to apply for the ACORN Farm to School Entrepreneur Awards. With prizes totaling $400 in 2 categories (Business and Social Entrepreneur), and the chance to get recognized at the Stone Soup Summit on April 3, why not let us know what you’ve been working on?
Financing the Working Landscape:
Strategies for Matching and Mobilizing Local Capital
On Thursday, Nov. 10, a local money conference brought together over 125 entrepreneurs, capital providers, and others in the Champlain Valley to catalyze new growth in the region’s food, agriculture and forestry businesses. ACORN partnered with the Addison County Economic Development Corporation (ACEDC) and the Addison County Regional Planning Commission to host the conference, Financing the Working Landscape, at the American Legion in Middlebury.
To see the event schedule, please click here, and look here to read about our generous sponsors.
Thanks, Tour de Farms Riders & Partners!
The fourth annual Tour de Farms has come and gone. On September 18, we were blessed with a beautiful day that saw 581 riders cycling up and down hills and tasting the bounty of Shoreham and Orwell’s farms. Be sure to save the date for next year’s Tour: Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012!
ACORN Network and our partners, Rural Vermont and the VT Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition, would like to thank all the volunteers, local businesses and community organizations for their hard work, generosity and enthusiasm. We simply could not produce the Tour without you:
Addison County Regional Planning Commission
American Flatbread, Middlebury
Champlain Orchards, Shoreham
Danz Ahn Farm, Orwell
Doolittle Farm, Shoreham
Earl’s Cyclery, South Burlington
Golden Russet Farm, Shoreham
Lemon Fair Honey Works, Cornwall
Lunatic Farm, Orwell
Metta Earth, Lincoln
Middlebury Natural Foods Co-op, Middlebury
Millborne Dairy, Whiting
Misty Knoll Farm, New Haven
Neshobe Farm, Brandon
North Branch Farm, Ripton
Singing Cedars Farmstead, Orwell
Stonewood Farm, Orwell
Stoney Lonesome Farm, Leicester
Shoreham Winery, Shoreham
Tourterelle, New Haven
Town of Shoreham
Vergennes Laundry, Vergennes
Vermont Trade Winds, Shoreham
Windfall Orchard, Cornwall
Wolaver’s Organic Ales, Middlebury
Thank you to our Friends of the Platt Memorial Library in Shoreham for organizing a wonderful AppleFest after the Tour. And last, but not least, thanks to the volunteers from Vermont Emergency Management and from Shoreham’s First Response Squad for making the Tour a safe ride.
To continue to support our local growers year-round, please take a look at ACORN Network’s Guide to Local Food and Farms (link to electronic version at right).
ACORN Wholesale Collaborative issues Final Report
Download the PDF version of the AWC final report.
The ACORN Wholesale Collaborative (AWC) is pleased to present its final report, the fruit of 6 months of field research funded by grants from the High Meadows Fund and the John Merck Fund.
The AWC was convened in December to determine the viability of a low-cost, online wholesale brokerage and delivery service linking Addison County produce growers and institutional buyers. The report answers questions regarding the interest of growers & buyers in such a service, which crops would have the most demand, the need for long-term storage facilities, the impact of marketing and branding, and much more.
Please take a look, and direct any questions to the ACORN Network!
ACORN Plan Sets 10-Year Goal for Addison County Food Market Growth
You may already know that Addison County is the leading agricultural county in Vermont, but there’s much more to say about our local foods economy and how we can strengthen it. ACORN is releasing a study titled “The 2010 Strategic Plan for the Addison County Local Foods Collaborative” that explores how the county can continue to grow the local foods market and significantly expand opportunities for its growers and processors.
The plan’s 10-year goal is to grow the local food market from a current estimated 5% share to 15%. The report highlights three key initiatives that will accelerate that growth: 1) launch a wholesale produce market to better serve local institutions and to build the critical mass needed for food processing; 2) hire a Farm-to-School coordinator to coordinate local food purchasing, gardening and food education programs in the three core school districts in the county, and 3) develop a Local Food Index to create a baseline metric for the local food market to be able to measure growth going forward.
Bill McKibben, noted scholar-in residence at Middelbury College, has read the plan and remarked: “All of us have the sense that there are roadblocks on the path to a more comprehensive local food system. This plan identifies them, suggests moderate solutions, and offers a roadmap for making Addison County and all its institutions thrive in the years ahead.”
What is ACORN?
If you’re new to Addison County you may not know about the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN). Check out our About page for a new video that describes us and our mission.
