In 2013, seven sophomore students organized around a cause that they felt was lacking the attention it needed: local food security. Middlebury Foods was born, a non-profit business through which central Vermonters can pre-order monthly boxes of meat and produce at affordable prices, made possible by cutting super-market overhead costs.
The business has grown to other areas of Vermont. This spring, the founders graduate from the College, leaving behind a team of underclassmen to expand the business: Emma Bliska ’18, Tevan Goldberg ’18, Charlie Mitchell ’18 and Filippos Papageorgiou ’16.
One barrier to delivering affordable nutrition is physical access; Middlebury Foods delivers food to accessible sites in Vergennes, Burlington, North Ferrisburgh, and, most recently, Brandon, VT.
Middlebury Foods got economic support when it earned a $25,000 grant from the University of Wisconsin and the Howard Buffett Foundation, beating out hundreds of graduate schools, like MIT, to place among the top five recipients. This was a milestone in a long road of fundraising efforts, which included a Kickstarter campaign, MiddChallenge and other grassroots funding initiatives.
More delivery sites demand better organization. With more than twenty active volunteers this year, the group ramped up responsibilities, which range from driving vans to making calls to ordering directly from producers each month.
“We’re past the trial phase,” said Oliver Mayers ’15, one of the founders.“We know the ins and outs of the business itself. We know it works. It’s really just a matter of where we want to take it.”
Emma Bliska ’18 seeks to partner with local schools.
“We know that food insecurity disproportionately affects children,” Bliska said. “One in five children in Vermont under the age of 18 lives in a food insecure household. I would like to see Middlebury Foods getting more connected with schools and childcare centers in the area, so that these kids don’t grow up believing that food is a limiting factor, because it doesn’t have to be.”
Nearing graduation, a lot of student organizations at the College are confronting organizational change. Middlebury Foods is one of them.
“We have a very informal model of leadership, which has been fun and worked decently well up to this point,” Tevan Goldberg ’18 said. “Right now, much of the planning and execution of deliveries and administrative affairs often goes to whoever steps up that particular month. (…) Streamlining the internal workings of Middlebury Foods will allow us to more effectively serve a growing customer base.”
The roles of future organizers are not yet determined, but “Middlebury Foods is different from other clubs because it isn’t one. It’s a real, living business with real, living consequences. Those stakes are motivating and thrilling,” Mitchell ’18 said.
“The true value of Middlebury Foods is that it is a sustainable non-profit, not a charity,” Chris Kennedy ’15 said. “ [I’ve learned that] every person and group is a potential partner in the fight against hunger.”
“There’s a real opportunity for Middlebury Foods to become a national organization,” Harry Zieve-Cohen ’15 said. “In fact, it’s already happening.”
