Vermont Youth Conservation Corps staff member Clarice Cutler, left, works with UVM Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center Health Care Share team members, Andrea Hazuda and Mike Kennedy to bag apples for people in need during the Vermont Foodbank’s Veggie VanGo mobile food pantry in January.
Berlin, Vt. – The Vermont Foodbank’s Veggie VanGo, a mobile food pantry, will deliver its second round of healthy groceries to the University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center in partnership with Hunger Mountain Coop on Friday, February 26. All families and individuals in need are invited to pick up free, fresh produce and other groceries from 9 to 11 a.m. in Conference Rooms 1 and 2 on the lower level of the hospital in Berlin, Vt. More than 150 people turned out for the first event in January.
The Veggie VanGo will continue to distribute food at the hospital on several Fridays throughout the winter and spring including April 1, April 29, May 27 and June 24.
The mobile food shelf is an extension of the medical center’s Health Care Share (HCS) program, a food assistance collaboration with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) farm, created to bring healthy food and nutrition education to those in need. HCS fundraising efforts support summer “food shares,” which are distributed weekly to food insecure families and provide more than 10 pounds of freshly harvested vegetables for three months. Last year more than 150 families and nearly 600 people were helped by the program. The Vermont Foodbank’s Veggie VanGo allows the Health Care Share program to expand during the non-growing season to fill the gap for families when the VYCC farm is closed.
The University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center is part of a four-hospital system established to deliver high-quality academic medicine to every community we serve. Our partners are: The University of Vermont Medical Center, The University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, The University of Vermont Health Network – Elizabethtown Community Hospital. For more information and to connect with us through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and our blog, visit UVMHealth.org/CVMC.