Open in your browser to chew on all the Bites

There sure is a lot going on! The current mood across the business world is a juxtaposition. On one side -think impacts on manufacturing costs from tariffs, ICE raids on farmers & food producers across the country then on the other the small business community of Vermont coming together in support of each other at the annual meeting of the Vermont Specialty Food Association. Below, you will find more on the annual meeting & its success!

At the federal level, the September 1st reduction in SNAP are triggering not only fears in food assistance but an increase in qualifications becomes an undue burden to those already struggling. The changes will cause 22.3 million families to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits, according to the Urban Institute. There is also an economic impact to stores, deleterious for small rural stores & advantages to corporate publicly owned behemoths Walmart (NYSE: WMT) Dollar General (NYSE: DG).

In fiscal year (FY) 2024, nationally, approximately $96 billion in benefits were redeemed at grocery stores & other authorized retailers. In Vermont the redemption data shows SNAP benefits exceeded $147 million dollars, with an average monthly 66,500 people receiving less than $200 per month per person & shopping in over 700 stores (does not include VT farmers market data). 

Both Walmart & Dollar General base their business model on lower income shoppers & have significant presence in rural communities. Though the data is not required to be collected, it is stated that nationally 25% of all SNAP benefits are redeemed by Walmart. Dollar General’s business model has been to contract with large scale national CPG corporations & not focus on fresh foods, reducing the nutritional options for shoppers.

Impacts to SNAP executed in September will be widely felt. Christine Pocaro of the food hub Healthy Roots Collaborative works in the local & charitable food space across northwest Vermont. She recognizes reduced SNAP benefits will be damaging to its population base including decreased sales & impacts to farmers & rural stores. The fallout will follow a national trend increasing pressure on organizations to meet the needs of their constituency, which are simultaneously being defunded at the federal level. 

Valued Community Markets

Across the state stores are recognized as "third places" where folks commune. The long chats or quick drive-by hellos add to Vermont's ubiquitous sense of caring for each other.

When stores close they leave a gap. When stores reopen they fill a gap. In Westford, a complete renovation has resulted in the recently opened Westford Provisions. The location has been the home to both a general store & an ice cream stand for decades. Now, the retooling has a state of art kitchen, gorgeous coffee drinks, local goods including produce along with a curated selection of gifts for all occasions.

Stores have long sought to aide locals in needs with a donation bucket or box to help a family in need. Overtime things change with increasing services provided through sites such as gofundme. But old-school community giving is strong in all corners of the state.

For instance, the Springfield Coop has a Change for Change campaign, as do so many coops. Since 2016 shoppers have rounded up to exceed $47,000 giving back to service agents supporting community needs. The money collected is valued, reaching pressing environmental & social needs.

Rally for Change, Change for Change etc are names for the mutual aid which is becoming more necessary as many federal programs have slashed allocated funds & cur SNAP benefits.

1975 to 2025 Just Doing It!

For 50 years, Hardwick has had a coop engaging with its community, once a bunch of hippie renegades seeking to empower choices around food, while connecting to each other with a coop. Buffalo Mountain Market celebrated its 50 years on September 14th.

The store expanded during covid (!) increasing access to food. With its growth folks supported local producers across all food categories & the physical expansion expanded choices as a 'hybrid store'.

A hybrid food coop offers products including bulk goods, dairy, grocery items, meat, seafood, produce, refrigerated goods, wellness products, often selling wine & beer. The term "hybrid" is more widely integrated into food coops referring to a model that combines aspects of traditional food coops with a diverse product selection that consists of a mix of  local, organic, & conventional.

Congratulations to Buffalo Mountain for 50 years of just doing it for its community

Seasonal Resets & Retooling

Kids are back to school, families are shifting their patterns & stores have their own way to introduce the shift to fall.

RESETS! DEEP CLEANING! REFRESHED MENU ITEMS!

There is no doubt the American shopper looks forward to changing menus from summer to fall. To meet their needs stores nearly always take advantage of the opportunity to reintroduce ingredients for turning on the oven for real. From changing up recipes to seasonal end caps, thoughtful merchandising generates store sales & success in meeting margin goals. Making it easy to shop should be considered too.

Store commissaries have started a switch to autumnal family-friendly recipes for easy nights. Also, on tap with the seasonal change is a re-visioning of the baked goods with more apples & pears included. 

Cost of groceries is up 17.3 % since July 2022. Increases are expected into 2026 as ICE raids farm & food processing operations in every corner of the country; limiting labor pools & instilling fear in workers. Secretary of Ag Brooke Robbins suggested there are enough workers in the US & Medicaid recipients could become farm laborers.

According to USDA data, 42% of US farm workers are undocumented immigrants, and just under 70% are foreign-born. And a March report from the Urban Institute found that most Medicaid recipients are either already working, exempt or face some sort of instability. Rollins suggested 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program” as potential workers.

-Guardian

Cafe & Food Prep:

Local Labor Saving Products

We hear from all constituents along the supply chain & we get to share new products, services & opportunities to help move food.

At the VSFA meeting, we learned that CAE's Farm Connex in Hardwick & Green Mountain Farm Direct in Newport are helping foster sales & distribution of Just Cut 8 LB Frozen Hummus in food service pack sizes. This can easily be utilized in lunch specials or repacked in grab & go containers.

Just Do It

Vermont's legendary farmer to foodservice produce program Just Cut, has everything a good kitchen needs to save on labor. Take your pick! All produce is minimally processed & seen as a go-to for stores large & small. Schools & institutions are also huge fans of Just Cut.

Diced potatoes are a hit cooked up with a variety of seasonings served on a hot bar, in soups, or as a breakfast side. Naturally when the labor is saved the cost is a higher than unprocessed raw, but right now kitchen convenience is winning out at nearly every food coop in Vermont.

It's Coming Along!

St J is getting closer to the long awaited opening of the Caledonia Food Coop. A community wide meeting on September 14th will showcase plans & gather more input on the coop. This is a hugely exciting time for folks to both sell to another outlet, & for shoppers to have access to a store that is community owned. 2025 is the year of the coop, & though the store is not slated to open in the next quarter, it is getting closer to fulfilling its mission. Congratulations to all who are moking this happen.

Speaking of Congratulations!

Paprika Empanadas is celebrating its first anniversary selling to stores which compliments their restaurant in the heart of Waterbury Center. The sweet & savory varieties are #Vermonting with touches of local products interspersed with traditional Argentinian culture. As VSFA members they joined the 120 other attendees to learn & share insights on their business, which thrives on local connection from sourcing ingredients to packaging. Contact Jen & Jackie for wholesale info.

B2B Connections

McLure Packaging in Essex Junction has warehouse docks available to other businesses that do not have “regular dock” facilities to unload / reload shipments of raw materials & finished goods. This includes temporary storage

They can schedule space to support start up or existing small business for transport / dock services / temporary storage of materials or machinery. All charges would be on a case by case basis as scenarios are all different.



Due to FDA regulations they cannot accept foodstuffs, but packaging, equipment & other aspects of getting food to market can be considered. Contact Peter for details

802 878-5344 x 115

On the Road

Becca Perrin of Farm Direct recently went on the road visiting producers & stores in Franklin County. One notable stop was the farm store at Boston Post Dairy where she was informed they had just won big with a first place at the ACS society competition for their Artisan Greek Feta. It is a huge deal to win in blind tastings. It is especially valued in a multi-generation family operation. It is getting out on the road that builds connections, & that includes impromptu celebrations along with a pitch for products to purchase.

Cold Chain: It Matters

There use to be a joke in Vermont about how the Subaru station wagon was a produce farm's & emerging value-added producer's delivery vehicle. Things have moved away a bit from that with a number of infrastructure grants made available through the USDA & Working Lands & other funding sources. The idea of shipping produce in a car that had no proper means to keep things cold became, well a thing to dig address.

The need to keep a cold chain in place became a more pressing issue as funders saw the food safety elements needing attention.

A break of the cold chain refers to any lapse in maintaining the constant temperature required for product preservation. This is a major issue in food logistics, potentially rendering goods unsellable or causing them to degrade more quickly, leading to financial losses for businesses.

Breaks can occur at any point in the cold chain, from storage to transport, & during the critical stages of loading and unloading trucks.

Over the past fifteen years, farmer to farmer meetings through the VT Vegetable & Berry Grower's Association focused on cold chains proper handling & documenting best practices for food safety. Working together we are seeing less "Subaru" deliveries & more proper refrigeration to support optimal temperatures for product integrity.

Cornell University's Small Farm Resources has a wide range of tools on produce handling, pack-out, & traceability. The work being done to support farms goes well beyond marketing & selling to making sure product lands on store selves with the integrity sought by the buyers, & which should always be paramount for the grower &the store buyr.

Local Meat Company

Local, on-farm processed whole chicken is found in stores around Franklin County. Rail City & Wood Meadow markets are two that are helping Dubbs Farm reach area shoppers.

A Day Vermonting!

This was our day to shine, in a year of many positives, at the Vermont Specialty Food Association Annual Meeting. Recently calved off as an independent organization, the energy was borderline silly with glee. Why just look at Holly, a recent hire at Provisions International learning the ropes with Rachel, a well-versed sales person making the rounds together.

As the new executive director, Karin Cioffi is leading a higher level of B2B connection & resource sharing. The number of food manufacturers, distributors, service businesses, & non-profit food-adjacent partners made for one heck of a day. This convening is exactly aligned with the Farm to Plate Grocers Project.

It takes all sectors to help grow our independent businesses, full of passion for sharing with each other. When we hear about Vermont's "great food products" & how they have a cache nationally, it is because we invest in a community hell-bent on making good things happen. Farm to Plate always benefits from one-on-one networking with our food community. If as a Small Bites reader you are not yet a member, it's never too late to join VSFA to support the organization. Below- a full house of 120 active & engaged businesses at the annual meeting.

It's Complicated, But Possible

Building sales is complicated. It is for farmers seeking new wholesale accounts, brands eyeing increased efficient production facilities, & for businesses aiming to expand through co-packing. 

The issues are the same across all the New England states, though variables may differ a bit based on geography, culture, highways & distribution options & routes. Learning the ins & outs of each stage of growth requires new skill sets for the founder to engage in to grow the business. It is not simply about increasing sales.

Careful financial analysis is needed to understand not only sales volumes but new impacts on cash flow through trade-spend fees, new equipment upgrades, including tariff impacts on imported equipment. 

However, knowing your sales channels is important because there may be products in your line that are geared to food service pack-sizes that have a lower cost of operation that impacts your profit margin differently than other products.

A super important point in growth: it is not a sale until the money is in the bank.  You may have delivered food to a distributor or DSD to a store, but not until you are paid is when you made the sale!

Food Connects announces new Executive Director to carry on their regional food mission: after a thoughtful & collaborative review process, the Board of Directors unanimously chose Lee Halpern as the next Executive Director. Lee first joined Food Connects as Business Manager, bringing a wealth of experience in guiding & stabilizing organizations through rapid growth.

“Lee understands the heart & soul of Food Connects. His leadership, paired with his commitment to the mission, will ensure the organization continues to thrive & make a lasting impact.” -Richard Berkfield

Farmers as Retailers:

Donuts, Apples, Plums,

All at Once!

September is the beginning of Cider Donut Season. It's a thing. Just like Creemees are a thing. (creamees?)

Apple picking is a family & fall must-do. That is for real, But so is donut hunting. If we don't do it ourselves, we know folks who do- usually on a weekend too. It's a real activity to load up with friends & visit the different orchards & choose favorites to please each palette.

Like donuts, each orchards that presses has its own signature flavor based on varietals, but also process. That too makes the touring extra special. And let us not forget about the apples! Unique new & old timey varieties abound. I happen to love the Rhode Island Greening & know where the trees are in the Monkton Ridge Orchard. I also know not to go too early as they need to hang for a bit to flavor-up.

Back in 2023 a New England Cider Donut Map was created to help folks learn the nuances of cider donuts & encourage road trips to visit our orchards. From Green Mountain Orchards in Putney in Westminster to Northcourt in Enosburg, donuts of every crumb, fry time, cider flavor & sugar can be tasted, along with creemees & hot caramel for the extreme donut & orchard experience.

Regional Food Matters

Customers want local, affordable food. They are also recognizing more & more the value of regional food & the positive economic & multiplier effect of keeping dollars local. To understand the dollars flowing through New England food businesses, the NEFNE Local Food Count helps identify opportunities & guide investment in our local food economy.  

All readers of Small Bites can join a growing network of grocers, restaurants, institutions, distributors, food manufacturers & others in New England tracking & sharing their local food sourcing. Tracking local food purchases helps us understand current sourcing patterns to identify opportunities to grow our regional food economy.

Ask Annie about the Local Food Count & how you can better understand your role in the New England food system & the value of the 2025 data collection process. Come January we will gather sales & purchase information from businesses & institutions across New England. Help us collect data that will support a stronger, more resilient regional food system. 

Save the Date!

Vermont Farm to Plate's 15th Annual Gathering is on November 20th & 21st at Burke Mountain Resort.

The theme "Keep Calm, & Collaborate on: Working Better Together as a Region in Uncertain Times"        

Business Support Services

VSJF offers business management coaching, entrepreneurial support, & training to position Vermont entrepreneurs for growth & long-term success.  Explore the possibilities!

Farm to Plate's events/news/jobs page is a go-to list to connect & learn.

Apologies for any oversights & typos.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue

Created with gratitude for the support from the Canaday Family Charitable Trust 

We directly support the New England State Food System Planners Partnership effort to strengthen the regional food economy.

Contact: Annie Harlow

smallbites802 @ gmail.com

All info is subject to change.