In April of 2021, Vermont Everyone Eats celebrated one million meals served. Just nine months later, in January of 2022 that number climbed to two million meals served since 2020. The mission of Everyone Eats is to bring the community (eaters, farmers, and restaurants) together to address food needs, and support each other through the pandemic. CAE is pleased to continue to partner with that program and has served 50,000 of those meals through the Hardwick Area Community Meal project, the CAE hub which supports weekly meals in Albany, Craftsbury, Hardwick and surrounding towns. Below are some stories about the impact the program has on people in our community. 

”I wanted to write a note of appreciation for the meal that I got this past Wednesday from Front Seat. I genuinely believe this meal was among the best of my life. Full of spice, flavor, texture. Good health! Good eating…
 
When I went to pick it up, the chef* looked me in the eyes and said something nice. It may have even just been “have a good night” but it was a moment of connection so profound for me I nearly wept! 
 
I felt loved for, nourished, and cared about while eating and ruminating on this program. This program means a lot to me. Thank you…”

- Bianca, Everyone Eats Participant

*Karen is part of the community meal team at Front Seat Coffee, Tobin Porter cooks all the food available at Front Seat.
 

“The Vermont everyone eats program has had a profound impact on our business. Not only has it been vital to feeding our local community but it has engaged future customers, and has helped us build back and expand the number of people we can employ. Through the VEE we have developed new menu items that have become a regular item in our cafe. This program has been more effective than any of the other stimulus programs that were available to us.”

- Tobin Porter, Front Seat Coffee 

"I’m involved with Everyone Eats, first, because I love the idea that it's a local community thing – the food comes from here, the restaurants are here and it supports my community – it's the reason I started participating.  As the pandemic went on and I lost part of my job, participation became a financial issue and getting a meal a week meant a lot of difference financially.  We’re both well over 60 and money is really tight for older people like us."

- Terri, Everyone Eats Participant




 

“Thanks to local participants, volunteer drivers, farms, restaurants, and community neighbor-to-neighbor networks, nearly 50,000 Everyone Eats meals have been distributed in and around Hardwick since the start of the pandemic. While I don't celebrate the need for 2-million emergency meals this week, I do celebrate all the hands that hold up this huge, multifaceted, mutually-beneficial effort in the Northeast Kingdom and throughout the state."

  – Meghan Wayland, Hardwick Area Everyone Eats Coordinator