farms is a nonprofit federally recognized nonprofit and we work to manage farm surplus food in the state of vermont in a way that makes us less dependent on food from far away and we're doing in a way that our hope is we can affect the food independence of our state and lessen the vulnerability of how we used to feed ourselves and really our work started about ten years ago we design or created the model for community based cleaning that is most replicated in the state of vermont and  that typically the poor did that once the primary harvest was done farmers would allow the poor and travellers to come into their fields and pick up the dregs of the the gleanings of their field and gleaning and in modern day times  an sometimes mean going to supermarkets and collecting their surplus a lot of the charitable food system in the state or in the country the food banks will often refer to that practice of food rescue as cleaning  salvation farms greening really means more of that traditional sense of the point of production really from the fields or directly from the farm whether that's their wash pack house or from the farmer's market after a year of piloting at peet's green agent and and and i'd say i don't know what she saw over that muffin you know we met a lot of rheostat a month hell year and she just said sure and i think that was the biggest blessing we had it gave us three years of the ability to function as a non profit project and and introduced to vermont this concept of what cleaning could be really professional level and at the end of two thousand and seven we had provided a good  volume about fifty percent of the eighty eight thousand pounds we had rescue rescued in three years we gave about fifty percent of that to the vermont food bank and at the end of zero seven the vermont food bank asked us if we would be willing to integrate salvation farms  their organization and i become an employee of of their organisation we joined them or my food bank and worked within the organisation for almost four years but at the beginning of two thousand and eleven i began the negotiation to to re to reestablish the brain and to separate and take the knowledge i had gained while working with that organization and create an organization that  could really serve farms first and foremost and work on building farm surplus management system that will serve an organization or an institution like theirs but really be designed as a as a kind of a conduit in between so it's been this interesting evolution of an organization so we've been federally incorporated since may of two thousand and eight and how much weight are we talking about how much food do we have in farm lot that's not being harvested how much right now is being cleaned and what what could be cleaned what could we have one of the possibilities that's a great question so our estimate is that the mom has about two million is a last food resource a human food resource so about two million pounds is our estimate while we're capturing again another one of our estimates through knowing what the activities of the cleaning initiatives are around the state  country maybe about twelve percent of what is available twelve to fifteen percent so anywhere from a quarter to a half million we're kind of capturing at most and some of that food because worse it's still relatively inefficient in the state and managing surplus is lost before it's even made available can be made available ok one of our hopes is through our programs that will be able to track more accurately what's being captured therefore have a more effective number of what the surplus is ok that two million pounds is around one percent i think of our state or state actual production so that that number is probably grossed grossly inaccurate sure some people on the national scale are predicting that farmers have a loss of about one third of their production wow so there's a lot there's a lot of food we don't know the perception about food insecurity is that there's not enough food salvation farmers have with all the other farms in vermont well a farm always wants to serve its market so in order to in order to serve that market you want to make sure you produce enough so there's often an overproduction and there is often a over production to ensure a certain quality level that's not always why there are surplus surplus isn't because it's just an over abundance it could be picked succession and there's times when you move out of the succession drain to another which means that you have a lot of either food or fertility still sitting right there you have your successions of food you get done with the e may still be wonderful for you it's time you have to move on timeline and for that food to get utilized and to go to people that need it feel created through quality demands if things aren't the right size for food manufacturing you know processing whether they happen to have like potatoes if they have a hollow heart they could be  the wrong size they could have some imperfection they try to have blemishes so all all of those things and anything that obviously affects the keeping quality of the product is why there may be surplus ok and so will the their design and that they are a service to farms and we want to be seen by the farmers eyes as a resource to them and an asset to them so we see that loosely so salvation farms often speak about vermont in vermont systems or we through our partners through the vermont clinic like there so we want to see the organizations approach farmers and say this is the way that we would like to serve your farm and how can we accommodate your your production to harvest all of your market schedules so that we compliment and we easily fit into so it could be knowing that a farm does a couple farmer's markets and they're going to have leftover food and they also had a c s a distribution and so showing up at their family on a monday morning when the leftovers are in the cooler and they have a place where they put them for you when you go there and you bet you box them up and take them away is a system that serves the farmer and doesn't take more of their time and really complements their existing systems or coming to the farm potentially the same day or right before and after they do harvest from market because then they can easily point to what they're moving out of what you are innocent left out of what they don't need so really working on you're an extension of their crew and you're just a new piece of their production and operational systems certainly so it's a mutually beneficial relationship for both parties ok yeah we have also some organizations that are trying to figure out how to go even beyond what can we get from your fields what can we also offer you so he help pull the black plastic after we clear this bed of whatever it is oh you only harvest summer squash on for your saturday market you pick that on fridays can we come in on monday and do a maintenance pick and clean everything off so that it means that the productivity of your of your plants so there's how do we make this mutually beneficial so that's some great information for any farmers who don't currently participate with  d if we actually start capturing the amount of food that is available in the state we need to think of our other mechanisms for managing that so our answer to that opportunity is the vermont commodity program and the vermont comedy program we are in development we're looking at light processing ok what we've for light processing what we've done to date has banned freezing of product i'd love to look at other  doing cleaning assessing the quality and case packing and i can see that the vermont commodity program will need a and i gauge in center and responsive and available labor source and that it should be both of those pieces should be side by side so while the large timers being brought in cleaned qualities as potentially case packed there's a process where that's some of it goes into the what's with that it's just doesn't seem right so to be able to offer something from right here in vermont potatoes are a good start we'd love to see more lightly process things that we can freeze for the winter space was built and part of a big building at the facility participants in the vermont offender were program to process just under seventy thousand pounds of donated potatoes destined for emergenc is that it's an it's an excellent opportunity to engage a population that if their out of work camp are required to work daily and in particular the facility where we are currently working at bears around seventy individuals that can't leave the fence every day and so incarcerated individuals that work camps there on supervised work crews that do go into the community and do such things as painting churches and ok knowing but launches the show metairie so but there are a good number of folks that can't leave the fence but are still required to work and our thought is that this is a great opportunity for them to do something while they're incarcerated that is productive with their time they can help them gain potential employers will skills we are complementing the work that some context to salvation farms the issue of food waste or food loss the issue of food insecurity and also context of our industrial food system so but i think the work itself really offers these individuals a way to while they're incarcerated feel a very they are actually doing something that is affecting but it isn't insular it is affecting their communities some in which they may have caused harm but it really helps them to have a link to the outside which i think can really affect our psyche and help them even for re entry absolutely here it's out the state it's part of the facility mission to have all of our population working every day i have found working in corrections that offenders oftentimes are really looking for a way to give back but inside a correctional facility those opportunities are very limited and they have really embraced this project and that this is opening a whole new door really in terms of vocational opportunity for these guys so it sounds like they're going to be making a connection of giving back to the community and gaining transferable skills for the future and it also benefits elevation fireless so that produce is getting distributed so it sounds like an equally beneficial situation and absolutely you know our mission and it's kind of  it's kind of heavy i guess technical jargon e i guess that's the best term is to build increase resilience in vermont's food system through agricultural surplus management and by distributing the produce to hospitals schools correction facility as and i wondering what that would look like as far as the farmers who could have possibly sold that produce to these places what it become competition or we have referenced cleaning as being the gateway character and that if we can provide low cost or cost free introduction to locally produce seasonally acclimated maybe it's of but lately processed we are allowing institutions and individuals to explore this product and become familiar with it in a relatively risk free way and i have no doubt that that creates it creates a situation where then that institution or that individual is going to be more likely to then make the investment because they have this experience and there they were given that opportunity to have that experience to operate absolutely want to become more comfortable it'll be the norm for th used to the food and then over time and so used to when they wanted more then we could start actually thinking about actually growing it for them and getting paid some for it so anyway the any organization helps us to you know to sit them and help them get impact another another thing i've thought about when looking at the competition for for farmers is even if we everything that we produce in the state of vermont we would only meet one thousand percent of our actual food needs so by taking this small one percent of surplus and putting it into these outlets i don't think there should be there should be threat we want to design this in a way that allows increased consumption of local foods in the state of vermont and reduces these institutions dependence on sourcing cheap food from out of state u s d a u s d a commodity food s i mean it just it makes economic and environmental sense and social sense to be to be doing best and and we certainly want to safeguard against replacing potential farm markets our shore  ok so so from here what do you need to make this happen what are you looking at for the future for the needs of the warehouse while all non profits need funding  and it's interesting because we want to really be a conduit for those dollars so the facility at the south the state correctional facility is is a state owned building we want to renovate that to serve the state of vermont not to necessarily serve our organization right to really further this program of the vermont come on the program so that we can be feeding school kids you know the sick and elder elderly in our communit hospitals and nursing homes as well as the food insecure through the charitable food system so we are creating an online in the calling of the gleaners interface but it's an online platform for the vermont cleaning collective for all organizations that are in the collective in organizing cleaning in their community post all of their announcements to gleaning their community all all of their data is tracked through this so it's all tracked the same but it's a place where all volunteers in the state of vermont that want to glean will be able to register that is a great loss and to streamline that is is one thing we advocate is that if if you can't support these efforts financially certainly get involved and if you can be a gleaner in your community do so find find the organization that is organizing and get involved whether it's one time or find a way that you can do it multiple times so can the public go to this website at this time the cleaning website there's going to be a portal to it from our website and there will be for each cleaning collective member organization its launch will happen at some point this spring so at that point the member but collective members will start putting in some of their farm information their distribution information as well as start importing their volunteer information ok and then we can announce and start driving volunteers to that site  order to financially support salvation farms we are happy to take dollars and any any mechanism that is easy for the donor mail is completely welcome although a lot of donations are given online nowadays but they can do that through your website you can do that through our website there's a donate now but in oregon for now but in the case there is our mailing address is at the bottom of each page so if you want to mail a check in but you know we're  fund raising for this currently we're fund raising for the renovation of the building at south the state correctional facility and we have a crowd funding campaign and that can also be accessed through our our home page and there's an educational video that goes along with that how to get a little insight into the southeast correctional facility where house yeah there are people in need and to be able to get fresh vegetables to increase the nutritional input of what they're receiving benefits not just them but the community healthy people meaning help healthy community and just you know in the long run benefits everyone whatever you can invest in that is a smart letting the public now about what you're doing as i mentioned farms thanks to a real honor i think i mean as the founder i agree but we're really working on trying to create a new segment of the system that does make us