Pulling Together After Tropical Storm Irene

By Clem Nilan, General Manager

In the wake of Hurricane Irene’s devastating floods last week, Vermont food co-ops immediately began sharing information with each other to assess the damage and offer assistance. Each of the co-ops I spoke with or read about reported the same story – a severe impact on local growers and farmers. The food co-ops themselves escaped relatively unscathed with the exception of Brattleboro whose primary store was shut down for a day and second store was badly flooded.

Here at City Market our 12 nearest farms, down in the Intervale, were devastated by Irene. Floodwaters rose to depths of 3 feet throughout the area, destroying the majority of our farmers’ unharvested crops. The timing could not have been worse, coming at the prime of the Vermont harvest season and following an unusually wet spring that had delayed planting.

Monday morning, as the Winooski River was still rising, we were glad to be able to send City Market staff down to work alongside dozens of community volunteers to help farmers harvest as much food as possible before the floodwaters entered the fields. We were also glad to be able to provide pallets for additional crop storage and bring down lunch for farmers and volunteers. Despite the valiant efforts of many, hundreds of thousands of dollars of crops were lost. Many of these 12 farms, such important members of our community and our Co-op, now face bleak financial situations.

Our Co-op’s Global Ends express our desire do many things, including: “being central to a thriving and healthy community; giving consumers access to progressive social, environmental and healthful choices; and strengthening the local food system.” With these goals in mind, we are providing members and customers with ways to support both these farms as well as Vermonters throughout the state affected by the disaster.

City Market is donating 1% of our total sales from Saturday, September 3 through Friday, September 16 to the Intervale Center Farmers' Recovery Fund. This should conservatively net over $10,000 to help Intervale farmers offset crop losses and repair damage. In addition, we’ve made a last minute change to our “Change for Local Non-Profits” recipient for September. Through this program, City Market donates 5 cents to a local non-profit for each bag that customers reuse in the store. September proceeds will go directly to the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund, organized by the United Ways of Vermont. We are also accepting direct donations to either of these Funds at any of our registers.

Wondering what else you can do to help? Click here for more response resources.

Thank you for your generous support.