Vermont Fresh Network: Creating a Local Food Community

The Vermont Fresh Network is a non-profit organization whose goal is to advance relationships between farmers, chefs, and consumers to help grow markets and to encourage people to eat more locally grown food. Through this relationship building, the Vermont Fresh Network hopes to strengthen local communities and their economies, eventually solidifying a strong and healthy food and farm economy within the state.

The Vermont Fresh Network website serves as a launching point to learn all the basic information about the organization, from their mission statement to upcoming events. I feel the strength of the website is found in its member search, allowing anyone to find where Vermont Fresh Network members are located and also where those members send their product. The VFN utilizes its Facebook page to inform the public of upcoming events and also posts menus from member restaurants allowing people to find locally sourced restaurants. VFN also has twitter, though it is hardly used and they don’t have a youtube page, though there are some videos posted about the VFN.

Between the website and Facebook there is a lot of information available about the VFN, though the organization is not utilizing social media as well as it could. I believe there are two main reasons for this. First, VFN emphasis farmer to restaurant relationships which often times require face to face interactions rather than social-media interactions. Secondly, the Vermont Fresh Network is run by just two volunteer staff members, so they have a limited amount of time to dedicate to VFN. A criticism of VFN for some is that through its emphasis on farmer to restaurant relationships it de-emphasizes the person to person food community. If that is the type of food community you are looking for, it would worth checking out Slow Food Vermont.

Though VFN doesn’t utilize social media as well as it could to spread it message to the public, it does a great job networking, allowing local farmers to find places they can sell their products. Many of the best known restaurants in Vermont are members of the Vermont Fresh Network including, Ariels, in Brookfield, Hen of the Wood in Waterbury and the Farmhouse Tap and Grill downtown.