Mel and Damaris Hall, the owners of the Quechee-based Global Village Foods, are a friendly, humorous, and hard-working husband-wife team with a passion for connecting with the community and affecting social change through their business. Recently partnering with Vital Communities on the New England Food Vision Prize, they are currently seeking to share their delicious variety of Pan-African foods with an even wider community while continuing to source many ingredients locally and offering great wages and working environment for employees.

Damaris began to learn about food production and hard work growing up on her family’s large farm in Kenya (which featured vegetables, tea, coffee, and more).… Read More

Through outdoor learning, students at the Ottauquechee School experience benefits such as, safe opportunities for student-directed play, learning through discovery, and connecting with new peers. 

In the beginning of the pandemic, “all classes were spending as much time outdoors as possible for safety reasons and to allow for a mask break as learning continued, using outdoor spaces next to the school constructed by Paul Sadowski (garden organizer and longtime outdoor leader at Ottauquechee) and volunteers,” said first grade teacher Jodi Tierney. 

More recently, however, most teachers have shifted back to learning outdoors mainly when it makes most sense for them and their students.… Read More