The Food Always Seems to Show Up!
2025 was another typically surprise-filled year. As we always do, we kept bringing people together to build strong community connections, and foster adaptability and resilience. As is normal for gleaning, 2025 had its share of surprises. But through it all we kept finding and being presented with opportunities to glean lots of wonderful food – stand out crops included so much cabbage and aronia berries!
Keep searching… and see what you can find … onions!
In all, over the course of 2025 we gleaned 96,702 pounds from local farms and food producers, which is again the most ever!
In addition, we continued to collaborate with other Vermont Gleaning Collective (VGC) member organizations from around VT and also NH programs to move gleaned food to where it’s needed most. Through these gleaning program partners we received an additional 23,622 pounds of food we were then able to donate.
We maintained partnerships with 33 local recipient organizations addressing hunger in our community. By donating all that recovered food we helped feed 12,668 individuals in Washington County. Many of those individuals received CHCV gleaned food on a weekly basis.
Overall, CHCV donated 116,522 pounds of food in 2025 to hungry Vermonters in need!
“The food provided by CHCV is truly life changing for so many. The variety and availability of fresh foods offers a sense of security for those in need.”
— Barre Area Senior Center
Over the last 12 years, we have donated more than 2.9 million servings of nutritious fresh local food that otherwise would have been wasted. None of this would have been possible without you and all those in the community who have partnered with us and supported our work since 2014.
Some chard leaves are bigger than others. This one is on the bigger side!
Thanks to So Many!
We would like to thank the 56 generous farms, home growers, and other food producers that CHCV partnered with in 2025 for the thousands of pounds of nutritious food they all donated! A full list of 2025 contributing farms and food donors is listed here.
“We continue to partner with CHCV because they are having such a positive impact helping feed people. What is more simply good for society than ensuring everyone is fed? As I watch the world/nation fall short of what it could be, this type of work gives me hope.”
— Kagen Dewey, Blackbird Organics
Partnering with all these great farms is the first step in our work. Then it takes an amazing team of dedicated volunteers to harvest, sort, clean, weigh, track, and deliver this food. In 2025 alone, 250 members of the community jumped in to lend a hand!
A huge thanks volunteers for the 2,834 hours and 8,916 miles you donated!
“CHCV is like a balm to me in these times. I’m part of a community that’s spreading a little bit of kindness and good; nothing makes me feel better.”
— CHCV volunteer
Find more pictures of volunteers hard at work keeping the wheels turning, and a listing of our most dedicated 2025 volunteers here.
Many hands make fast work of a row of beans at Tamarack Hollow Farm.
Thanks to so many generous individuals, foundations, businesses, towns, and other partners who supported us with your financial and in-kind gifts in 2025.
We especially want to thank all those that made a contribution as part of our year end campaign. We reached our year end goal and then some!
Pears are always a special treat to be able to share, but they do take some extra work to get them down with care.
A special thanks to the many businesses that sponsored our 2025 field gleans and market gleaning.
Ellie Tobin Stubbs, CFP®, AWMASM, BFATM, Financial Advisor, Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC
Will Cleland Handyman
Let us know if your business is interested in becoming a sponsor in 2026.
“Thank you for this inspiring report, reminding us of all the caring individuals and organizations in our community working together to bring healthy food to our neighbors. It’s a great antidote to much of the national news.”
— CHCV Financial Donor
Continuing to Create Space for Community Building in 2026
Now more than ever before connection is key to a strong community. Our volunteers describe the value of the space we have created together, a space to work alongside like-minded individuals not only keeping their hands busy but also filling their hearts and souls with purpose and hope.
Over the last 12 years, with thousands of hours of work donated by hundreds of volunteers, we have created not just a space where people can come together to help bolster our community but also a place to store and preserve the donated food so that it can nourish more of our neighbors, all year long. We have created the infrastructure to store and distribute almost any food that may come our way. Our food producer partners in the community know this and they don’t hesitate to call when they find themselves with surplus crops or other, sometimes surprising, products to share.
We gleaned 100 pounds of, wonderfully good for you, aronia berries, so fun to glean even if your hands get a bit messy.
We know that gleaning can be extremely unpredictable. For much of the year, we may not necessarily know where the food that sustains our mission will come from. But we have learned to trust that it will come.
This past fall, when we realized we would not have access to the same robust supply of carrots and apples that we have had in recent years, we wondered what we would have to put into storge to sustain regular deliveries through the winter months. We reached out to our current local and regional gleaning partners to let them know we were looking for any additional surplus that might be available and with a little help from our friends we were able to fill the gap and then some. When all the numbers were counted, we donated more than 116,000 pounds of fresh, nutritious local food in 2025 and by the end of December had almost as much stored up for winter as in previous years.
For a little context, we donated about 13,000 pounds more in 2025 than in 2024. Just as importantly, we built a number of strong new connections and partnerships that will continue to bear fruit (and vegetables!) in the years to come.
Meanwhile, our recipient sites are working hard, as always, to serve an increasing number of clients in need of nutritious food. Our collective efforts are critical to helping these sites meet this growing need.
As we continue working together to strengthen our community, we are committed to helping EVERYONE EAT LOCAL, and to working toward an ever more resilient and interconnected local food system.
We are so thankful for ALL OF YOU, our amazing community, who work with us to address hunger, reduce waste, and build a stronger, more resilient and loving community!
We could not have done any of this important work without your help, support, and dedication to our mission – bringing our community together to make sure everyone has access to nutritious food, and none of it is wasted.
We are committed to keeping our community strong, and we will be counting on your continued support in 2026 and beyond, ready for any new challenges ahead!
We have so much gratitude for all your fabulous support in 2025. Peace and hope to all in 2026!
