The 4-Town Coalition's Food and Farm Resilience Committee formed in 2019 as a result of the series of community forums in the towns of Tunbridge, Royalton, Sharon and Strafford. The goals of the Food and Farm Resilience Committee are to support gardeners, homesteaders, and small scale producers, and to increase access for all residents to food produced locally. In the summer of 2020, we conducted a survey, which many of you participated in, to begin identifying the infrastructure, markets, educational programming, and other services needed by farmers, homesteaders, and eaters in our community.

Since that survey, we have been working on figuring out how to meet those needs. There are three coordinated efforts underway that each present opportunities for the community, including the South Royalton Community Garden, the White River Land Collaborative as well as the 4-Town Coalition Food Resilience Committee. We are now at a stage in our planning for which we need more detail. For example, the survey revealed that many area farmers would find shared agricultural equipment/tools to be helpful. Now we need to ask: What kind of equipment and tools? How frequently do you need them? How should the equipment be owned and managed? What location would be most accessible for this equipment to be stored? Your input will help us move these ideas into real projects.

We are hosting an online community conversation for each of the four towns. Royalton's will be Wednesday, March 30, 6:30-8pm, register at the link in the flyer or contact megfuerst@gmail.com.

We are also hosting a conversation for all farmers in the 4-town (or surrounding) area. This will be held on Wednesday, April 6, 6:30-8pm; you can register at the link in the flyer or contact suzanne@lunableufarm.org

A flyer with detailed information, including a preview of results from the 2020 survey, is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uXsbwCThm7c8jHsGbOEkG4lse5OynTVt/view?usp=sharing or by emailing me!

We hope to see you there,

Sarah Danly, 4-Town Coalition, White River Land Collaborative

Suzanne Long, Luna Bleu Farm, 4-Town Coalition, White River Land Collaborative

Megan Fuerst, South Royalton Community Garden, 4-Town Coalition

Megan Asbury, 4-Town Coalition Coordinator