Food for Thought with Theresa Snow of Salvation Farms

Emergency to Emergence

Jul 25 2021 • 37 mins

Sterling Alumna (‘01) Theresa Snow,  Founder and Director of Salvation Farms, conveys the origin of her non-profit and explores the practical and ethical importance of food surplus management.  This conversation reveals the multifaceted potential of gleaning and surplus management activities, which serve as an eye-opening and activating type of experiential service learning while also supporting more equitable access to Vermont’s bounty of fresh produce.  Theresa also speaks about her first-in-the-nation statewide study of edible food remaining on farms, and how to appropriately integrate technology and data to reveal supply-demand dysfunction and support more full food utilization for the benefit of farmers, eaters, and the environment.  But in the end, she makes and defends some important claims about how change really happens -- and, despite all the good work that Salvation Farms and its organizational partners have done, Theresa doesn’t view institutions as the most important change agents.

[02:58]-Salvation Farms origins; basic needs to eat; food supply chain

[14:40]-definition of gleaning; experiential component; access to food

[20:15]-first in the nation state-wide study of edible food remaining on farms

[27:44]-technology, data and gleaning

[:33:29]-value of community