Hi neighbors and friends,
I'm the Outreach Coordinator at Rural Vermont, a grassroots advocacy group that works with farmers and "eaters" to make it easier to buy and sell good food among neighbors. We're launching our 30th Anniversary celebration series on April 8th - and you're invited! It's up in Montpelier, but I promise it will be worth the drive. Come up to the Grange to share a meal with old and new friends, and hear some entertaining and thought-provoking stories about the joys and challenges of producing good quality food for friends and neighbors. (Including one story, well song actually, by local farmer-musician Jonathan Falby of West Brookfield.) More details below and at our website www.ruralvermont.org. Feel free to email me with questions! Hope to see many of you there.
*************************************
FARMERS TELL THEIR STORIES!
Rural Vermont Launches 30th Anniversary Series of Events on April 8th in Montpelier
To honor a rich and gutsy thirty year history and to connect the dots between good public policy and good food, Rural Vermont is launching a year-long “Farmers Tell Their Stories” series. The first event is on Wednesday, April 8th at the Capital City Grange, located at 6612 Route 12 South, just a mile south of Montpelier. Farmers and friends will take the stage and present a variety show featuring their personal and collective experiences through story, poetry, song, and skits!
Preceding the storytelling will be a potluck at 5:30 and Rural Vermont’s Annual Meeting at 6:30. The storytelling program begins at 7:30 and there is a $5 admission for this portion of the event. Everyone is welcome.
The storytelling will honor some of the people and accomplishments that make up Rural Vermont’s long history, as well as expose the dark underside of the local food movement. The program will provide plenty of food for thought, along with humor, hope, inspiration, and an invitation for everyone to play a role in defining Rural Vermont’s next thirty years.
The audience will learn about Rural Vermont’s earliest days from the organization’s founder and current day Senator Anthony Pollina, and then be transported back to 2006 with Board Member Emeritus Dexter Randall and previous director Amy Shollenberger for a high-stakes vote during one of Rural Vermont’s most contentious campaigns. Someday Farm’s Mara Hearst & Maria Reade will talk turkey (and chicken) about the challenges their farm faces as a result of Vermont’s poultry law, and how this experience is inspiring them to take action. Folks can expect to be both entertained and shocked when some of the current-day issues stifling our farmers and our food system are highlighted in an original song composed by farmer-musician Jonathan Falby and a skit written and performed by farmer-puppeteer Zach Brandau. And we’ll be reminded of the triumphs and struggles that have defined Rural Vermont through a poem performed by farmer-lyrical artist Jeffrey “Frey” Ellis and based on content provided by the Rural Vermont community.
This entire “Farmers Tell Their Stories” series is made possible with support from our 30th Anniversary Partner Members: Farm Aid, Action Circles, & Bob White Systems.
For more info and to RSVP, visit www.ruralvermont.org. Or contact Shelby - shelby@ruralvermont.org.
Since 1985, Rural Vermont has been amplifying the voices of farmers and advocating for a fair food system. Through education, organizing, and advocacy, we work to create scale-appropriate, commonsense public policy that helps rather than hurts our family farms and preserves Vermont’s cultural heritage of neighbors feeding neighbors. Share this vision? Stay informed and get active by signing up for Rural Vermont’s mailing list or becoming a member at www.ruralvermont.org.