RUTLAND—The Vermont Farmers Food Center and Shrewsbury Institute for Agricultural Education announce the award of a $30,000 matching grant from The National Endowment for the Humanities for Root Words, a collaborative project that will collect and present the stories of rural Vermonters through live storytelling events, gatherings at notable sites and visual installations. At the beginning of August, NEH announced $39.3 million in grants for 245 humanities projects across the country. VFFC and SAGE’s Root Words project is one of three NEH grants awarded in Vermont.
As Vermonters, we are all intimately connected to our landscape. From this common ground, we will gather the stories of farmers past and present, natives and transplants, and Vermonters famous, extraordinarily ordinary, and those who are marginalized. The Root Words project will foster greater understanding of the forces that have moved our thoughts and actions, encouraged or suppressed our creativity, shaped our work, and thereby, our landscape.
“It would be wonderful if kids growing up here and folks choosing to live here could feel ownership of the natural and human landscape. From that could come caring for both. We need to be familiar with our surroundings: what’s gone before and what’s happening now in order to to care and be active in what comes next,” shares Grace Brigham, local artist and president of the Shrewsbury Historical Society.
VFFC and SAGE’s Root Words project will begin activities in 2018, in collaboration with local chapters of historical societies and anyone with a story to share. Announcements of events and opportunities to help shape this project will be made via the The Vermont Farmers Food Center’s website, vermontfarmersfoodcenter.org.
For details, inquiries, or ideas contact Galen Miller of SAGE at galen.sage@gmail.com or Heidi Lynch of VFFC at hlynch@vermontfarmersfoodcenter.org.
Vermont Farmers Food Center, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, began as a grassroots, volunteer-led project and is spearheading the rebuilding of infrastructure necessary for agriculture to serve as a regional economic engine through the development of 2.93 acres of industrially zoned land in the heart of Downtown Rutland. The Shrewsbury Institute for Agricultural Education, is a small, non-profit corporation formed in 2013 to encourage traditional and innovative ways of farming organically in Vermont. SAGE believes in sharing information with others committed to sustainability, for the good of our local community
