HARDWICK — To celebrate 20 years of helping move the local food system forward, the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE) will hold open houses at all of its facilities on Saturday, Oct. 5. The public is invited to come learn about the work CAE is doing to support local agriculture and the community. Check caevt.org/fun for locations and information.
The CAE assisted when flooding here in July came one year after flooding in the region in 2023.
Assisting in flood recovery twice has been a natural extension of the CAE mission.
“We are deeply connected to the people and farms in our region and already serve as a resource for community support, so pivoting to meeting immediate needs in the wake of disaster was really a natural extension of our mission. What we didn’t envision was reliving the scenario a year later,” said Jon Ramsay, executive director of CAE.
CAE provided over $30,000 in grocery and meal vouchers for those impacted, facilitated over $500,000 in Vermont Farm Fund Business Builder and Emergency Loans and served as a hub serving 700 meals a week in the aftermath of the 2023 flooding. This year CAE assisted in similar ways.
