The Intervale

Here are a couple pictures that I've been meaning to post for some time. Over the last year I've posted several stories about the South Burlington Food Shelf, which is not surprising since it's become such a big part of my life. People go out of their way to praise me for the time I spend there, but I get more out of the experience than I ever contribute. It's definitely kept me sane during the madness/sadness of the last year. Health allowing, I usually volunteer three days a week, matching up with our open hours: Thursday 4:30-6:30 p.m.; Friday 8:00-10:00 a.m.; Saturday 8:00-10:00 a.m. Sometimes, however, I end up coming in more often (foolishly, they trust me with a key). For much of the summer I often popped in earlier in the week because I had donations from the good folks at Diggers Mirth at the Intervale. How did I end up with the connection? Classic Vermont, naturally. That old joke about the Kevin Bacon factor where everyone is only separated by six degrees doesn't apply in Vermont because it's usually at most two degrees of separation. A good friend and colleague knew that someone in her apartment building worked at Diggers Mirth and thus they might be a good fit for us, and thus the relationship was born. So, I'd often get a text midweek and then make my way down to the Intervale to pick up boxes of fresh produce from their walk-in fridge down in the Intervale. Often I'd called my friend Steve, another consistent volunteer at the FS, and off we'd go.

The fridge is massive and it was usually jampacked with boxes, so I definitely appreciated the little notes.

They inevitably had more produce than we could store at the Food Shelf, which led to Steve and I madly scrambling to come up with a plan - such as, we really weren't supposed to pick up more than four boxes, so it became a question of turning whatever we were given into four boxes. It was all great produce - and it's going to a wonderful cause - even if the veggies were scrunched a bit in our repacking.