BIPOC farmers facing challenges

A century ago, Black farmers owned an estimated 14% of the country’s farmland. By 2017, that number had dropped to below 2%. The picture is similar here in the Green Mountain State, where just 17 of Vermont’s 7,000 farms (or 0.33 percent) were Black- or African-American-owned in 2017.

Each week ACORN staff and volunteers help package shares of fresh produce from local farms, which are then doled out and delivered to 100 local families.

Community members can join “working bee” brigades organized by ACORN to help tackle various projects on area farms, from onion planting to sheep shearing.

It’s often been said that many hands make light work, and that’s certainly the idea behind the volunteer “working bee” groups being organized by The Addison County Relocalization Network.

At its annual meeting on Nov. 28, the Addison County Relocalization Network, or ACORN, will host a panel discussion on “Farming on the Forefront of Climate Change.”

The Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) is launching a new group that will give local food producers a chance to connect with one another, discuss challenges and explore ways to address climate change.

In early January 2023, Lindsey Berk, ACORN’s Executive Director, and Jess Purks, its Food Hub Manager, loaded up over $2,000 of local food in a delivery van at the new ACORN Food Hub in Middlebury.

The CVOEO center stores food and distributes it to local low-income households.

The Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) has just hired a manager for a new “food hub” on Middlebury’s Exchange Street that next month will begin receiving a variety of wares from area food producers and help get them to markets both near and far … (read more)

Recently, during a Farm to School meeting, the term “Sense of Place” was mentioned a few times. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that term, but a question kept echoing in my mind. What does it mean for one to have a Sense of Place?

ACORN was one of eight project proposals to share $324,467 in Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets grants to help fruit, vegetable, and value-added producers increase consumer access to locally produced food.

ACORN’s 13th annual Tour de Farms, one of Vermont’s oldest cycling farm tours, is returning after 2020’s COVID-induced hiatus. On Saturday, Sept. 18, riders will make eight stops along a 30-mile route and sample some of the Champlain Valley’s best food an … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — When the Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) reached out to Middlebury College students last spring, seeking help with developing an app that would keep the community connected to local farmers and food producers, rising senior Ben … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — The board of the Addison County Relocalization Network, known as ACORN, last week announced that it had hired Lindsey Berk as its new executive director. First hired in August 2015 as ACORN’s director of marketing and development, Berk has be … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — ACORN’s Farmacy: Food is Medicine program began its second season of “healthcare CSA shares” on July 9, delivering farm fresh produce to 65 families. The program, a partnership with Porter Medical Center, the Vermont Department of Health, Mid … (read more)