Green Mountain Farm-to-School

09/02/2026

No plans for tomorrow night? We'd love to have you join us between 5:30-7:30pm at Sweet Rowen Farmstead in East Albany for a Pizza Social, hosted in partnership with NOFA-VT. Enjoy wood-fired pizza from NOFA-VT’s mobile oven; stop by the NOFA-VT and GMFTS tables to connect with our organizations; and get to know Sweet Rowen Farmstead through a farm tour! 🥛🍕 Finish the evening with chocolate pudding cups (featuring Sweet Rowen milk) made by our very own Food Hub Operations Director, Meggie. 💛

This gathering is part of NOFA-VT's summer on-farm event series. Learn more and register here: https://nofavt.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/nofavt/event.jsp?event=727&
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This post was written by our Development Manager, Rose Lovett. AI was not used to generate this content.

08/27/2026

We're excited to partner with NOFA-VT for an upcoming Pizza Social at Sweet Rowen Farmstead, a Farm Direct partner. We're proud to connect Sweet Rowen to local markets to sell their exceptional cheeses, yogurts, dips, and spreads—all crafted from the milk of their grass-fed Vermont Heritage Linebacks.

Join us for an evening of great food and company! Enjoy wood-fired pizza from NOFA-VT's mobile oven, take a guided tour of the farm, and finish with homemade pudding cups made by Green Mountain Farm-to-School using Sweet Rowen milk.

It's a wonderful opportunity to learn about sustainable dairy farming, meet your local farmers, and connect with your community. We hope to see you there!

Learn more and register here: https://www.nofavt.org/events/nofa-vt-pizza-social-sweet-rowen-farmstead

08/26/2026

Announcement for our food hub customers:

Green Mountain Farm Direct will be closed for the Labor Day ordering cycle. We will list only Strafford Organic products for next week's ordering cycle (9/1 through 9/7). Please plan ahead - we encourage customers to bulk up orders accordingly THIS week (for orders due on Monday 8/31). Thank you for your flexibility.

08/20/2026

🚨New Producer Alert🚨

There’s a new farm in town, and we are so excited to help them grow and welcome them to the local food crew! Peacham Greens grows vegetables that are flavorful, nutritious, accessible, and close to home. Owners Eric and Michelle grow fresh, organic vegetables on a small scale, guided by no-till and regenerative practices that nurture living soil and support biodiversity. They currently operate a farmstand and CSA program and attend regional farmers' markets.

Learn more here: https://www.peachamgreens.com/
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This post was written by our Food Hub Operations Director, Meggie Patton. AI was not used to generate this content.

08/17/2026

FYI to Strafford Customers

I have a dilemma. In the midst of getting a grant application in before deadline, the crew learned that the one full bag of cocoa powder left in our dry storage was actually milk powder. We plan ahead, but organic cocoa powder has been on backorder for six weeks and all our emergency-sharing processor friends are out, too.

We discovered the problem after the milk and sugar components were already mixed, so the options were to throw out a portion of the milk to preserve the ratios, or run light on cocoa powder. In the course of turning the decision over to others, I didn't ask how short we actually were and unintentionally gave the impression that running light was the better option.

It turned out that the chocolate milk we made today was less than half as chocolatey as we usually make it. It's still pretty good, but it's different. After long debate, we think we'll put it out in the world and see if people will buy it. The beauty of a glass bottle is that it will be immediately clear that this chocolate milk is less chocolatey than usual. Our supplier won't have cocoa powder for next Thursday's batch either, so this is the best we can do for two weeks.

If we put this milk out there and it doesn't sell, that's fine; we'll bring it back here and find a use for it (pigs, chickens, compost). If there are enough people who wouldn't mind a short spell of less-chocolatey milk to make a good dent in the stock, great. Either way, we hope you won't hold it against us.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'd love your thoughts if you want to weigh in. We live at the end of a long dirt road and maybe don't have the best meter for how things will go out in the world. Nothing has gone out the door yet and we could still keep it all here if you think it's an affront to our loyal customers to offer this batch for sale.

Thank you.
--Amy

08/17/2026

Join us Thursday, September 3, for a NOFA-VT pizza social at Sweet Rowen Farmstead in East Albany, where Paul Lisai and his team are raising Vermont Heritage Linebacks, a heritage landrace breed whose milk is transformed into delicious cheeses, yogurts, dips, and spreads.

Sweet Rowen Farmstead has long been committed to sustainable and regenerative farming practices and is now in the process of transitioning to certified organic! Come meet the herd, learn more about their farming practices, and enjoy dinner baked fresh in NOFA-VT’s wood-fired pizza oven.

This event is also being held in partnership with Green Mountain Farm-to-School, so it's a great opportunity to learn more about their work to grow the farm-to-school movement across Vermont!

Come for the cows and pizza, stay for the good conversation and farm-to-school inspiration! Space is limited, so please reserve your spot in advance at NOFAVT.ORG/SUMMER2026

08/14/2026

Green Mountain Farm Direct is proud to help Copley Hospital source fresh, local foods for their kitchen! It's wonderful to see this Vermont hospital invest in our local food system to create high-quality, nutritious meals. 👏

At Copley Hospital, we're committed to serving fresh, nutritious meals while supporting the local farmers who help make them possible.

Through partnerships with Green Mountain Farm Direct, Farm Connex, and the Vermont Food Venture Center, we're able to source more Vermont-grown foods for our patients, visitors, and staff. These organizations connect local farms with institutions like Copley by providing the resources and distribution needed to bring fresh products from the field to our kitchen.

When we choose local, we're doing more than serving great food- we're investing in Vermont agriculture, strengthening our local economy, and supporting the communities we proudly serve.

08/14/2026

Our final week at The Lunchbox was bittersweet! We gave away SO. MANY. VEGETABLES. and said “goodbye-for-now” to so many of our regular visitors.

Despite some early issues with the food truck, The Lunchbox still distributed over 3,000 free meals to children and teens this summer! And we gave away over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce from our school gardens and area farms. 🍅🥒

If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please consider taking our annual survey to let us know about your experience visiting The Lunchbox: https://forms.gle/zmfTcNNHjjscbMb59

We’re so grateful to everyone who helped make this summer possible:

-To the families and community members who visited: Thank you for spending part of your summer with us. We love serving fresh, nutritious food and getting to know local families!

-To our amazing partners, including: Barton Public Library Leach Public Library Goodrich Memorial Library Salvation Farms Vermont Department of Health / WIC Circus Smirkus Everybody Wins! Vermont Head Start Greater Barton Arts Children's Literacy Foundation Ticket to Ride Butterworks Farm

-To our generous sponsors, including: Community National Bank, VT, Whitsons Culinary Group, Barn Angels, EastRise Credit Union, and NorthCountry Federal Credit Union. See all our sponsors here: https://gmfts.org/supporters/business-sponsors

- And to all our supporters! Thank you for an amazing summer. See you next year! ♥️

08/13/2026

This summer, Ella Pecor joined our team as our Food Sovereignty Intern, making a valuable contribution to our team and community. Ella’s friendly face welcomed visitors to The Lunchbox each day, where she handed out fresh produce from the Market Basket table and facilitated enrichment activities for kids. Behind the scenes, Ella supported our Food Access Coordinator, Hilary Rosa, with Lunchbox program planning, preparation, and marketing. Ella also worked with our AmeriCorps team to tend to the school gardens we manage, bringing harvested fruits and veggies to The Lunchbox each week.

Ella’s can-do attitude, thoughtful suggestions, and clear passion for our mission shone through her time at GMFTS, and we are so grateful to have had these past few months with her!

This fall, Ella will be returning to St. Lawrence University where she is studying Environmental Studies and Political Science. We wish her the very best with her senior year!