Bake Night for Pies for People, Soup for Supper!!

Collaboration and Local Food: A Community Feeds Its Community

Hardwick, VT-November 10, 2009-Harvested from the fields of High Mowing Seeds and processed at Pete’s Greens, squash destined for the compost pile will once again, find new life in feeding people.

The Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE) has organized a second Pies for People project, an area wide collaboration of farms, schools and agricultural producers that creates and delivers local food to local people during the holiday season. This year, not only has the project expanded to more than double the number of pies baked, it will also make squash soup for donation to local food shelves and senior care homes.

Pies for People, Soup for Supper will culminate in the Sterling College kitchen for two “Bake Nights” on November 17th and November 18th. Student volunteers from UVM, Sterling College and Craftsbury Academy will create and bake 135 pies and simmer 20 gallons of soup, made of donated local ingredients. The pies and soup will be delivered on November 18th and 19th to the Hardwick Area Food Pantry, Hardwick’s Community Dinner, Hardwick Elementary, Greensboro Early Learning Center, Greensboro Nursing Home, Craftsbury Academy for their autumn concert, Craftsbury Community Care Center and the Woodbury Calais Food Shelf.

This project could not have been possible without the working partnerships between the Center for an Agricultural Economy, Sterling College and the University of Vermont, or from the generous donation of services and ingredients from the following local agricultural businesses:

• Butternut squash and pumpkin grown by High Mowing Seeds in Wolcott and harvested by Sterling College students
• The cooking and processing of the puree by the crew at Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury
• The use of the Sterling College kitchen to assemble and bake the pies, and cook the soup
• Highfields Center for Composting in Hardwick will process all the compost-able waste
• Storage provided by the Vermont Foodbank at its facility in Wolcott
• The generous donation of chicken broth for the soup and the use of a refrigerated truck by Pete’s Greens
• Pie crusts made by Charlie Emers of Patchwork Bakery in East Hardwick
• Recipes created and donated by Steven Obranovich of Claire’s Restaurant in Hardwick
• Pie and soup ingredients donated by Organic Valley, Butterworks Farm, Agape Hill Farm, Butternut Mountain Farm, Cabot Creamery, Buffalo Mountain Co-op, High Mowing Seeds, Sterling College and Pete’s Greens
• The tireless, enthusiastic student, staff and community volunteers from Sterling College and UVM

The CAE sees the pies and soup project as a collaborative effort to meet the needs of a community using locally grown and donated produce. Many individuals and organizations in the
greater Hardwick community over the years have generously donated to the food pantry and other community service organizations, and it is the hope of the CAE that the Pies for People, Soup for Supper program will be another inspiration to others in the months ahead.

Contact:
Elena Gustavson, Education and Community Outreach Coordinator,
Center for an Agricultural Economy,
Tel: 802-472-5840, email: elena@hardwickagriculture.org

Contact:
Kate Camara, Director of Media Relations,
Sterling College,
Tel: 802-586-7711, ext 124, email: kcamara@sterlingcollege.edu

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