Response to Pandemic
Royalton Area Mutual Aid Request Survey
Please click HERE if you need help!
BALE (Building A Local Economy), Community Resilience Organizations (CROs) and Town officials in Royalton are taking steps to actively respond to the pandemic. We are helping with a coordinated public response -- to protect and support each other... particularly our most vulnerable populations.
A top priority at this time is to reduce the spread of the virus by staying home. Another top priority is making sure that all community members have what they need to enable them to stay home, whether sick or healthy.
Please click the link above if you need help, including delivery of food to your home. This list is compiled by community organizers as a way to help Link those who need help with others who are physically and emotionally available for mutual aid work around the COVID-19 pandemic.
What's New... What's Ahead...
Local Community Solar for You this Year
A Major New Initiative.
Despite the pandemic, the White River Community Solar schedule is still moving ahead. BALE, the Energy Clinic at Vermont Law School, and Catamount Solar are developing the Community Solar project for this fall (as long as we're allowed by September). Want to join in? We are hoping to be fully subscribe by mid-June, so if you have any interest, please contact us soon (you must be a Green Mountain Power customer). For more info, contact Chris HERE.
Lessons from the Soil
Fertile Ground:
Reclaiming Power and Possibility
The culminating event in the online series, Climate and Community Resilience: Lessons from the Soil, is called “Fertile Ground: Reclaiming Power and Possibility.” Hear from a panel of Upper Valley farmers about their experiences and decisions during this time of transformation. Then, a group discussion will focus on existing efforts to build resilience and potential new efforts for the Upper Valley.
Chuck Wooster grew up far from the land and wandered around in exile until 1995 when, fleeing a desk job in Boston, he apprenticed for a year at Caretaker Farm in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Caretaker was one of the first organic farms and one of the first CSAs in the U.S., and by the time the harvest was over, Chuck was smitten. In 1999, Chuck and his wife Sue purchased Sunrise Farm, and in 2000, he started Sunrise Farm CSA with his brother Bruce. In 2012, Chuck dropped the last of his other day jobs and took up farming at Sunrise full-time. Since then, the CSA has expanded to 350 members and the farm produces chicken, lamb, maple syrup, and firewood and lumber.
Madi Whaley is a food and plant enthusiast who works for Permaculture Solutions, LLC: a business centered around permaculture designs, installations, and education. They are also involved in a start-up heirloom corn and traditional foods project called Moon & Stars Arepas. Madi is originally from Northern California, where they spent summers and college years volunteering and doing work-trades at organic farms, as well as experimental permaculture and eco-building sites. They moved to the Upper Valley in the spring of 2019, where they
worked as a farmhand at CedarCircle Farm, which is transitioning toward regenerative agriculture. They are passionate about building healthy soils and resilient food systems, and are also engaged in climate action, food justice, and LGBTQIA+ efforts.Niko Horster performs the daily management of Broad Acres Farm - Shire Beef in Vershire, VT: a beef ranching business with 65-90 head of cattle including a cow/calf operation and finishing beef on grass using holistic management and carbon sequestration. Niko has been involved in countless initiatives in the Upper Valley over the past decades including various non-profit organizations, construction companies, and intellectual and community-building pursuits. Niko is a member of the Vermont Grass Farmers Association and leads workshops for the Vermont Pasture Network; he also mentors young farmers in grazing management and in food systems.
Marita Canedo is an active member of of Migrant Justice, whose mission is to build the voice, capacity, and power of the farmworker community and engage community partners to organize for economic justice and human rights. They gather the farmworker community to discuss and analyze shared problems and to envision collective solutions. Through this ongoing investment in leadership development, members deepen their skills in community education and organizing for long-term systemic change. From this basis our members have defined community problems as a denial of rights and dignity and have prioritized building a movement to secure these fundamental human rights to: 1) Dignified Work and Quality Housing; 2) Freedom of Movement and Access to Transportation; 3) Freedom from discrimination; 4) Access to Health Care.
This free live Zoom webinar takes place on Sunday, May 17 from 3:30-6 PM. Be sure you have the Zoom app on your device and click HERE. For more info on the series, click HERE.