Hojun Choi
There’s a moment Sheryl Rapée-Adams waits for each year, when the birches and bushes behind her Montpelier home brush the last bits of snow off their leaves, and she welcomes back the sound of the North Branch River crinkling back to life after the spring thaw; that means it’s time for gardening.
Rapée-Adams and her husband, Chris Adams, manage The Garden at 485 Elm in Montpelier. The growing season doesn’t only usher back the opportunity for her community garden to bloom, Rapée-Adams said. It’s also a time when she and others in the group can contribute to a larger network of local organizations and businesses that are fighting food insecurity.
“Gardening brings out the best in people,” Rapée-Adams said.
Members of the community garden don’t have individual plots. Rather, the garden recruits about 20 volunteers and their households share the harvest. The organization hosts “work parties,” a social atmosphere where volunteers can take care of different needs at the garden.
The structure allows people with different skill levels and interests in gardening to pitch in, Rapée-Adams said.
“A lot of gardeners show up and say, ‘I don’t want to make any decisions, just tell me what to do,’ or ‘I see what needs to be done here, I’m going to jump in,’” Rapée-Adams said.
For more than a decade, Rapée-Adams and her husband have sought out creative ways to manage and expand the community garden. The organization is largely funded by donations and does not seek to turn a profit, she said.
The community garden donates any food left over from each harvest, and works with the Community Harvest of Central Vermont — a nonprofit group that connects food gleaned after harvests at local farms with organizations that feed people. Often, the gleaned garden surplus produce goes to the Montpelier Food Pantry.
Although the community garden’s volunteer roster is filled for this year, Rapée-Adams said she is always open to speaking with people about what she thinks are the best practices for starting a community garden.
“We all have things we do well, but it takes enough people with enough of the skills and inclination to hold things together,” Rapée-Adams said.
Other ways people are growing food in the community range from a city garden, to community supported agriculture, to other models of community gardens.
A Feast for All
The city of Montpelier’s Feast Farm — similar to a community garden — is tended by volunteers.
The farm, managed in part by the Montpelier Parks and Trees Department, grows food for the local food pantry and the Meals-on-Wheels program and is part of the city’s youth conservation corps programming.
“We’re always looking to grow and get more people out there,” said Alec Ellsworth, the director of Montpelier’s Parks and Trees Department.
After losing its original location to flooding in 2023, Feast Farm moved to a quarter-acre lot on the city-owned property on Country Club Road. Feast Farm broke ground at the new spot in 2024, but the past two years have focused largely on the relocation and transition, Ellsworth said.
“This will really be like the first season that we’re back up and running since the flood,” he added.
Community-Supported Agriculture
Melisa Oliva operates Ananda Gardens with her husband Patrick Sullivan just 10 minutes outside of Montpelier. The small-scale farm operates under a “community-supported agriculture” model in which members invest into the agricultural business and get direct access to the produce.
While the farm does not use volunteers, the business — like the community garden on Elm Street — partners with Community Harvest of Central Vermont to donate excess food items.
“We don’t have the capacity to have a volunteer program, but that doesn’t stop us from contributing to the greater good of the community,” Oliva said.
The Meaning of Gleaning
A significant portion of the fresh produce items at the Montpelier Food Pantry, which is operated by local nonprofit Just Basics, Inc., is sourced from the Community Harvest of Central Vermont.
Rick DeAngelis, executive director of the organization, said local community gardens and gardeners are also a cherished source of fresh produce that the pantry uses to address food insecurity in Montpelier.
“Food pantries and food shelves have a long history, but they are usually — both the language and sometimes the operation — framed as a handout, helping somebody or charity,” DeAngelis said. “If you look at the food system a little deeper, there is a lot of food out there and another way to look at it is as a distribution problem.”
Being able to address that problem while also fostering friendships outdoors is why Rapée-Adams looks forward to dedicating hours outside her job as a massage therapist to manage the community garden on Elm Street.
“We’re playing a role in an active, fertile, mutually supportive community,” Rapée-Adams said. “It feels good.”
