Help everyone eat local — glean!

That’s the motto of Community Harvest of Central Vermont, a nonprofit dedicated to feeding hungry Vermonters with farm-fresh food that would not otherwise be harvested. This surplus food is gathered by 275+ volunteers who, all together, glean more than 50,000 pounds of fresh produce from 40 local farms each year. The gleaned produce is then distributed to food shelves, senior centers, and other community meal sites.

Allison Levin is the mastermind behind this huge team of volunteers, farms, and partner organizations. Allison is an artist with an eye for color as well as a community organizer, so we developed the new organization’ look and feel together: She suggested color palettes and I refined them to specific brand colors; she drew a logo and I colored it. We started with basic promo materials like a poster, brochure, business cards, envelopes, and a remittance card for donors, then I helped Allison design decals for her gleaning truck, a sponsorship sheet for potential funders, and aprons, T-shirts, and tote bags for volunteers.

Shortly after she showed that first brochure and poster to her board members, Allison told me that their response was, “Wow — we’re REAL!” I assured her that Community Harvest of Central Vermont was already real. I just helped Allison and her crew bring their very real work to life in a solid set of print materials — and one hardworking pickup truck.