The Intervale Center’s
Healthy City Youth Farm
Building Strong Community Partnerships
- Abenaki Heritage Garden
- New Farms for New Americans
- Burlington Food Council
- Burlington School Food Project
- Former Programs
ABENAKI HERITAGE GARDEN at the Intervale Center
The Abenaki Heritage Garden is a “three-sisters” garden with traditional corn, beans and squash varieties grown much as the Abenaki would have cultivated them 900 years ago. The garden is intended to honor the agricultural heritage of the Abenaki at the Intervale, educate the public about Abenaki history and culture, and grow food for the Abenaki community.
Watch a video featuring the Abenaki Heritage Harvest that took place in September 2010.
The Abenaki Heritage Garden was established in 2009 by a group of community volunteers led by the Burlington Area Community Gardens (BACG) Advisory Board. Working closely with the St. Francis/ Sokoki band of the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, the Intervale Center, Gardener’s Supply Company, the US Department of Agriculture, and the University of Vermont, the group developed a demonstration garden at the Intervale and a sister garden at the tribal headquarters in Swanton. The Abenaki Heritage Garden is now an Intervale Center project with a community advisory board made up of representatives from BACG (a program of Burlington Parks & Recreation), the St. Francis/ Sokoki band of the Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and UVM’s Environmental Program. Support for the Abenaki Heritage Garden is generously provided by New Chapter and Will & Lynette Raap. The garden is part of the Sacred Seeds Network, a project of the Missouri Botanical Garden.
The Abenaki Heritage Garden is open for self-guided tours during daylight hours. Maps are available in the Intervale Information Kiosk.
For more information about the garden or a guided tour, or to volunteer, please contact Rob Hunt at the Intervale Center.
New Farms for New Americans (NFNA) is administered by the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV) with advisory assistance from the Intervale Center. It has been partnering with refugees in the Burlington area for the past three years to help them thrive in their new community. Through this program, families grow their own food and get the support they need to sell produce and develop farming enterprises. Some make prepared foods to sell at farmers’ markets and other local venues.
NFNA’s mission is to:
- help refugees grow more of their own food that is fresh, culturally appropriate and free from harmful chemicals
- provide workplace or business training for unemployed refugees
- help refugees create their own successful farm- and food-based businesses
Since its inception in 2008, NFNA has grown from 27 market gardeners working a 2-acre plot at the Ethan Allen Farmstead to 60 market gardeners on 9 acres in 3 locations.
The Intervale Center provides technical assistance to these budding enterprises and helps AALV evolve its incubation of refugee farmers. Each winter, participants have access to a series of weekly workshops that help them with financial planning, vegetable production in Vermont conditions, record-keeping, and marketing to grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and restaurants.
The Intervale Center helps develop the curriculum for this educational program, and our staff works with farmers one-on-one to help them improve their business and marketing skills.
A call to the community (Feb. '11): A farm wash station is being created at the Ethan Allen Homestead for New Farms for New Americans. This will be a very practical and beautiful addition to the farm enterprise, but we could use help to set it up.Our most pressing need is for a farm truck - one that is no longer roadworthy would be suitable, since it would just be used to go from field to wash station. We are also looking for bath tubs or stock tanks, large plastic totes with lids, a reach-in cooler, cement blocks, lumber, and hardware cloth for spray- table tops.
If you can supply any of these items, please contact Julie Rubaud at 802 660-0440 x116 or julie@intervale.org. Thank you!
The Burlington Food Council is a city-recognized, open community group exploring ways to ensure that Burlington, Vermont and its surrounding communities create and nurture a healthy, equitable and sustainable food system for all people. The Intervale Center is currently coordinating this work. For more information, check out their website.
BURLINGTON SCHOOL FOOD PROJECT
The Burlington School Food Project connects school kids and families with nearby farms by bringing fresh produce to cafeterias and hands-on agricultural education to students. Through this collaborative effort with Burlington Legacy Project, Burlington School District, City Market/Onion River Co-op, Food Works, NOFA-VT, Shelburne Farms, Sustainable Schools Project, University of Vermont and Vermont FEED, Healthy City was at one time one of the largest independent suppliers of produce to Burlington School District cafeterias. Healthy City youth and staff, along with staff from partner organizations, also led educational field trips attended by more than 500 elementary and middle-school students annually.
Former Intervale Center Programs
In partnership with the Vermont Foodbank, the Intervale Center coordinates volunteers to glean on area farms and collect pre-boxed produce donations from local farms for distribution to Burlington area nonprofits, the Vermont Foodbank, and the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf.
For questions about the project, please contact VT Foodbank Theresa Snow at 802-505-1689.
Healthy City, a program of the Intervale Center from 2002-2009, was designed in response to the community’s need for job- and life-skills training for at-risk youths; the need for better education about food in our local schools; and the needs of low-income families for fresh produce. Healthy City met these needs during its seven years with the Intervale Center by creating a community of teens and adults dedicated to growing healthy food for themselves, their families, and their community. On November 2, 2009, the Healthy City program relocated from the Intervale Center to its new organizational home with Friends of Burlington Gardens. Friends of Burlington Gardens and the Intervale Center feel that the transition represents a unique opportunity to broaden current farm to school programming to impact more students at more schools over more grade levels. To learn more about the Healthy City Youth Initiative please visit the Friends of Burlington Gardens site or contact Program Director Jenn McGowan at 802-861-4769.