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Luc to Be Interviewed on Vermont Public Radio Today

Society and culture

vteditionThis is nothing to do with writing or habits, but at about 12:45 Eastern today, I’ll be on VPR’s Vermont Edition talking to host Jane Lindholm about the new CSA Matchmaker on our Web site, which helps Champlain Valley residents find the perfect CSA. In case you’re not familiar with the term, a CSA (“Community Supported Agriculture”) is an arrangement with a farmer to pre-pay for a season’s worth of food, often picked up weekly. The CSA member gets a good deal on great local food, and the farmer gets financial stability and regular customers. If you know anyone in the area who might benefit from joining a CSA, please send them over to the site. We’re coming up on 1,000 visits so far based on word of mouth, an article in the Free Press, and other exposure, so I think it’s working.

Anyway, I’ll be talking a little bit about the CSA Matchmaker and Localsourcers. In future we plan to expand the CSA Matchmaker to many other areas, and on May 1st we’ll be launching the Localsourcers Online Forum, a community for anyone anywhere interested in sharing information and connecting about local resources, local food, sustainability, and resilience. Come join Localsourcers (free) if you’re interested in taking part.

Later addition: here’s the link to the segment.

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Fight Climate Change With a Grocery Basket

Society and culture

I’ve launched a new community-based nonprofit called Localsource, with a Web site to help people connect around getting food and other necessities locally, and a local chapter called Champlain Valley Localsource that will hold its first meeting in Burlington, Vermont on February 6th.

Localsource

People who join Localsource will have tools and information to get products they need in a way that is far safer for the climate and good for building community and the local economy.

Here’s our initial press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Local Foods Group to Hold Inaugural Meeting at Burlington City Hall

Burlington, Vermont – Champlain Valley Localsource, a new community nonprofit that champions use of local foods and resources, will hold its inaugural meeting on Wednesday, February 6, from 6:00-8:00 PM at Burlington City Hall Contois Auditorium. The Champlain Valley group is the first local chapter of the group, which is online at www.localsource.me.

“When our family started changing over to local foods, I was amazed that Burlington, one of the most local foods-friendly places in the country, didn’t have a group where people could share ideas and information,” says organizer Luc Reid. “Localsource is meant to fill that gap for Burlington and the rest of the Champlain Valley.”

A former group called Burlington Area Localvores previously held localvore challenges and promoted local foods, but disbanded several years ago.

Vermont ranked first among the fifty states in the 2012 Locavore Index, a comparison of state population to number of farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture organizations sponsored by The Strolling of the Heifers and based primarily on USDA and U.S. Census data.

In addition to food-coops, farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture operations, farms, and food producers, the Champlain Valley is home to dozens of organizations that promote local foods, such as the Vermont Fresh Network, the Burlington Food Council, Addison County Relocalization Network (ACORN) and groups at Champlain College and UVM. New organizations are springing up to serve immigrant populations in the Champlain Valley and all of Vermont, such as New Foods for New Americans, which helps transplanted African farmers grow food in Vermont, and the Goat Collaborative, which this year will begin raising local goats as a source of meat for area residents to replace the frozen goats from Australia that have supplied that need so far. Localsource is unique among these organizations in that its primary mission is bringing together individuals and families to help each other transition to more local sources of food and other necessities.

The February 6 Localsource meeting will begin with a social half-hour, for which musicians are invited to bring instruments, followed by presentations, problem-solving, and discussion. It is free and open to the public. More information is available at www.localsource.me or by e-mailing luc @ localsource . me.

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