Residents of Middlebury often care a lot about having access to healthy foods. Many individuals take significant strides to ensure their loved ones will be able to eat such foods by growing their own fruit and vegetables, buying produce at farmers markets, and shopping at Middlebury Nature Foods Co-op or the two full-service supermarkets and additional stores. However, this ability to purchase high quality and nutritious foods is not available to everyone in the community. Unfortunately, too many residents still struggle to get the healthy food they need on a regular basis.
Commodification of Food
Although many people understand access to nutritious food is vital as it is a human right, a high prevalence of people do not have access. The food industry has made healthy food a high-priced commodity, making it inaccessible to many individuals. This causes serious consequences from both medical and social perspectives. Limited access to healthy foods results in malnutrition and causes diet related diseases.
Natural landscapes and biodiversity need to be nurtured, not looked at from an exploitative perspective (Kimmer 2013). This is seen in the food industry as many place healthy food on a pedestal and in turn price it unreasonably high, which is a major factor to limiting public access.
Low-Income/Low-Access Areas
Low-income/low-access areas were formerly known as food deserts. They are areas where access to healthy food sources is limited or non-existent. Some of the factors that contribute to the presence of low-income/low access areas are: income inequality, lack of transportation, and smaller populations. Rural agricultural communities have a higher chance of being without healthy food access. These places are often overrun by a disproportionately high number of fast-food restaurants and places that sell low nutritional-value food at low costs (Annie E. Casey Foundation 2021). Communities with many large-scale commodity farms often are unjustly areas of low access to food and other resources. They are raising commodity crops for feed or ethanol, not food; and full-service grocery stores are absent. Usually farmworkers get minuscule wages and working conditions can be extremely difficult.This is not conducive to accessing healthy food, especially when these rural areas have limited access to it.
Local Food
Eating locally sourced foods can bring a plethora of advantages to communities. It supports local economies through the multiplier effect, in which local sales cycle through the community, rather than sending profits to far-away corporations. Increased access to local foods will also decrease food scarcity. As purchasing food shifts towards locally sourced food, growers will produce more and the local food systems can be rebuilt making nationally-sourced foods not the only products available. If there is a reduced reliance on distant commercial farms, the prices of local foods can become more equitable because as more people purchase locally, the small farms can better sustain themselves, which will allow them to offer lower prices. Additionally, the reduction of transportation in the processing of food production and distribution of food that is produced should cut emissions of greenhouse gases from supply chains, which will have a beneficial effect on the environment
Importance of food sources
Different forms of agriculture have different environmental impacts. Based on usual demand mechanisms, as industries advertise more foods, people are more likely to consume more food than they need. Eating more foods that have high climate impacts will exponentially degrade the earth.
When selecting types of food it is important to consider the impacts as different foods emit different levels of greenhouse gasses (GHGs). One’s environmental impact could quickly multiply, by neglecting this variance. Produce emits the lowest amount of greenhouse gasses, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and water vapor that absorb the sun’s infrared light, leading to increased global temperatures. Fish and poultry have significantly higher emissions, but cattle clearly have the highest. Methane is produced in cows’ stomachs as a byproduct of fermentation during the grass digestion process. Methane emissions are important to consider although many people focus only on carbon dioxide emissions. In actuality, methane is twenty-five times more powerful at trapping infrared than carbon dioxide.
Nutrient cycling in agriculture
Production of some foods, such as legumes, can improve nutrient cycling. Legumes play a major role in the nitrogen cycle (an essential building block for all life). Nodules which fix the unusable atmospheric nitrogen into a more accessible form grow on these plants. The increased abundance of nitrogen enhances growth of other plants. Legumes can be grown for human consumption as well as a cover crop. Cover crops are used in agriculture to protect the soil and ensure that future generations of other crop species have access to nutrients in order to maximize growth.
Columbia Farmers Market in Columbia, Missouri works to provide healthy food to low-income individuals in the community. The organization created a system of communities through interactio between locals and farmers to ensure everyone can have access to healthy food despite socioeconomic status. This example of functioning food equality can be transferred to different communities across the country and world to create better access to healthy food for all.
Local Supporters
Vermonters Feeding Vermonters
Vermonters Feeding Vermonters is a state-wide program with the goal of increasing food security and supporting local farmers in Vermont. The program is run out of the Vermont Foodbank and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM). It purchases local food directly from Vermont farmers to distribute to Vermonters facing food insecurity. The program distributes the food through a network of community partners and partner organizations. Some of the main goals of the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters program are: improved health for Vermonters facing hunger, security for farmers, a stronger Vermont economy, and a reduced environmental footprint.
Giving Fridge, Middlebury
In downtown Middlebury sits Giving Fridge, which collaborates with local businesses, restaurants, and farm stands to provide free, nutritious meals to the community. The organization started during the pandemic to aid food insecurity and now has been running for nearly three years. The organization rotates weekly providers to create meals. Giving Fridge fights the stigma of food backs and food insecurity by cultivating unity. Funding for the meals comes from fundraising and profits from their subsidiary business Everything Nice which is a plant boutique; every purchase goes directly towards buying food.
Giving Fridge works with local farms which allows them to provide nutritious produce to all despite one’s circumstance. The Middlebury Campus newspaper recently published an article on the Giving Fridge.
Local Resources
Porter Medical Center-Food Resource Guide
To learn more about food availability and resources in and around Middlebury, Vermont, Porter Medical Center has released a detailed guide.
Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects (HOPE) is located in Middlebury to help support low-income people throughout Addison County by providing items and resources to fulfill basic human needs. Their aid includes:
- Housing financial assistance
- Accommodations for people experiencing homelessness from tents to emergency hotels to laundry
- Budget counseling
- Urgent medical needs
- Food and food preparation resources
- Job support
Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) works to solve crises of social, racial, and environmental injustices in Vermont. To increase food access in Addison Country there is a Food Shelf in Middlebury.
Public knowledge of food insecurity often focuses on familial impacts and neglects struggling young adults. The Addison Independent highlights how this crisis impacts students in an article.
Allen, Sharon. 2022. “Find a Farmstand or Pick-Your-Own Orchard.” The Montpelier Bridge. September 20, 2022. https://montpelierbridge.org/2022/09/find-a-farmstand-or-pick-your-own-orchard/.
Annie E. Casey Foundation. 2021. “Food Deserts in the United States.” The Annie E. Casey Foundation. February 13, 2021. https://www.aecf.org/blog/exploring-americas-food-deserts.
Flowers, John. 2021. “The Giving Fridge Offers Food for the Hungry.” Addison Independent. January 14, 2021. https://www.addisonindependent.com/2021/01/14/the-giving-fridge-offers-food-for-the-hungry/.
Reynolds, Maggie. 2023. “The Giving Fridge Enters Its Third Year Addressing Food Insecurity in Addison County.” The Middlebury Campus. April 13, 2023. https://www.middleburycampus.com/article/2023/04/the-giving-fridge-enters-its-third-year-addressing-food-insecurity-in-addison-county.
Ritchie, Hannah. 2020. “You Want to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your Food? Focus on What You Eat, Not Whether Your Food Is Local.” Our World in Data. January 24, 2020. https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Cloudlibrary. 2013. Braiding Sweetgrass : Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. S.L.]: Milkweed Editions.
University of Colorado Boulder. 2020. “Food Insecurity.” Environmental Center. October 26, 2020. https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2020/10/26/food-insecurity.