When I was applying to colleges, I spent a good amount of time poking around on different institutions’ websites. Scrolling through Middlebury College’s newsfeed, I stumbled upon a video about a student-run nonprofit — Middlebury Foods. The video opened with a student declaring: “We’re fighting an industrial food economy that doesn’t like local food to be cheap.”
I was so inspired by these idealistic, hardworking students, and their commitment to bettering their local food system. They seemed to really care about the larger community, and not just the campus community. I wanted to be a part of that.
So, I applied to Middlebury and was accepted. As soon as I arrived on campus my freshman year, I signed up to volunteer. I spent the next two school years, and the summer in between, working for the organization.
It was simultaneously the most rewarding and the most frustrating work I’ve ever done. Meeting local producers, seeing deliveries come together from the initial manager meeting all the way to the delivery weekend, handing happy customers bags teeming with local fruits and veggies, being surrounded by passionate individuals with idealistic dreams for a better food system — it was all incredibly exciting.
But all of the excitement came with long hours reviewing financial reports, fielding complaints, discussing ongoing issues, and making attempt after attempt at fixing things with little to no success. I felt like we were going in circles. We knew what was wrong, but, as full-time students with other jobs and responsibilities, it felt like we never quite had the time to commit to make the necessary improvements. I came to the painful conclusion that passion and idealism can only get you so far.
On Aug. 13, Middlebury Foods announced that it would be closing its doors as a nonprofit, and donating its remaining financial assets to HOPE and John Graham Shelter. The last delivery will be held this September.
The other night, I was talking to a friend about my time at Middlebury Foods. I expressed feeling frustrated that our work hadn’t had the intended impact, that we didn’t help the community enough. My friend pointed out that just because we are dissolving the nonprofit now, that doesn’t detract from the work students have done for the seven years that Middlebury Foods has been in existence.
The end of the nonprofit also doesn’t mean the end of our efforts to improve our local food system. The Middlebury Foods team has a level of passion and optimism that I have not seen matched anywhere else. I think those qualities will drive every member of our team to continue working toward a food system that better serves those who are underserved and overlooked by the industrial food economy.
But it has been a tough reality check. Running a nonprofit is time-consuming, difficult and sometimes disheartening work. It takes blood, sweat and tears to successfully manage a business.
Since coming to Middlebury, I’ve also started to question whether nonprofits are the best solution for addressing food access issues. Nonprofits have been critiqued for being Band-Aid solutions to big, systemic problems. I’m still figuring out where I stand on this issue, as I see the need for immediate aid that activism can’t fulfill.
Janet Poppendieck’s book “Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement” changed my views immensely on food charities as solutions to poverty and hunger. She pointed out that charities can unintentionally exempt the government from addressing these issues, and that resources and people invested in charity work could be making more efficient and permanent change through activism.
Regardless of this debate, I believe Middlebury Foods has had a positive impact on the community and on us, the managers. “We play one small part, and we play that part as best we can. If we do just that and serve the people that we do and serve them well, then we’ve made something a little bit better.” This is what a former manager told me in an interview I did with him last July.
There’s something to be said for small changes. Even though I may decide activism is more effective than charity work, even though our nonprofit is ceasing operation, we’ve still had a positive impact and that’s something worth celebrating.
Although September may be our last delivery, I know that none of the managers are done fighting the fight that began this whole thing. There are solutions within reach. This one may not have gone exactly as planned, but there were many good ideas that made up Middlebury Foods, ideas that we will take with us into future work on food access and equity.
Editor’s note: Nora Peachin, a rising junior at Middlebury College, was an intern at the Addison Independent this summer. Watch a video she made about Middlebury Foods below: