HOW IT STARTED

Over the last several years, our world experienced an unprecedented moment due to the COVID pandemic. It has made us re-examine our supply chains and how we get our food. It’s been a time of increased anxiety and food insecurity, and a time when mental health and wellness are challenged by new barriers. Building resilience through gardening and more information how to access free food, may help if only a little.

The Growing Resilience campaign started in Brattleboro, Vt out of a growing interest in gardening stemming from the impacts of COVID-19. The Food Access Alliance (Alliance) of the Monadnock Farm and Community Coalition (MFCC), brainstorming how to best tackle the overwhelming need to provide gardening training and resources and get food access program information to all communities, reached out to the Brattleboro campaign. Brattleboro generously offered the website template to help build resiliency among families on both sides of the river struggling to feed their families during the COVID outbreak. Historically, people often pursue growing their own food during major crises. "Food Supplies in Times of Emergency" written by Alan F. Rumrill, Historical Society of Cheshire County.

Since 2013, MFCC's 140+ member organizations have been meeting in quarterly forums and in working groups to build an equitable, sustainable and robust local food system in the Monadnock Region. MFCC members share a common interest in food security and sovereignty, wellness, nutrition, farm viability, community empowerment and resilience. As we navigate this challenging time, these groups will continue to meet to align assets to support gardening and to get available food to those who need it, in a new way.

The Growing Resiliency campaign was inspired by Bring Back ‘Victory Gardens’ by Roger Allbee and The Time is Now for Vermont Victory Gardens by UVM Extension's Gordon Clark. This, combined with the apparent high interest in gardening, was the seed for launching the “Growing Resilience” and the "Food & Gardens for a Resilient Monadnock Region" campaigns as a way to respond and help carry our communities through unique challenges with a sense of self-reliance, health, food security, and solidarity.

MFCC's Alliance will continue to gather a catalogue of community gardening resources and updated information on free and available meals and food, to continue to build "our story" here in the Monadnock Region.

We are all collaborating to tell this story together and create opportunities for the Monadnock Region to feel connected, both to this place and each other, through our relationships to food and growing. There's no other place we would rather be growing resilience!