August Farm Update: Post Flood Recovery Process

We want to update you and reassure you that your Intervale Community Farm is on the road to a resilient recovery.  Since the flooding three weeks ago, we've been turning heartbreak into hope.  Your belief in ICF continues to be so inspiring.

We are so grateful to all of you for staying with ICF this season. Your summer share payments are keeping Intervale Community Farm growing and rebuilding.  We also thank you so much for your donations to our GoFundMe fundraiser and to those donations sent directly to the Farm, totaling over $60,000. We are keeping abreast of other local, state, and federal support programs as they develop and we pinpoint our future needs.

Your financial support will allow us to retain our farmers for the season, an impossibility for many flooded farms in Vermont.  As Farmer Aly said at pickup last week, "No farmers, no farm."  Keeping our staff whole means the world for this season and for ICF’s future.

ICF staff have heard a few questions about food safety at Farm pick-ups.  Since the flood, our farmers have spent many hours consulting with experts at UVM Extension and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to learn how to follow US Food and Drug Administration rules about crop safety. Intervale Community Farm was founded in 1990 to provide delicious, nutritious and safe food for our community, which we have done through threats and floods, large and small.  Food safety and food integrity are very important to us.

If you have any questions or comments about produce safety, the outlook for this summer, our plans for the winter, or the ways that the ICF is planning for resilience over the long haul, please don't hesitate to speak with a staff member at pickup or contact our Farm Manager Andy Jones.  All would really enjoy speaking with you!

We thank you all so much!

Your ICF Board of Directors

Bonnie, Christopher, Emily, Lis, Maja, Mandy, Mark, Mieko and Pamela