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Kathleen Merrigan, Former Deputy Secretary of the USDA, will focus on local food and food insecurity during her visit to Vermont hosted by the Vermont Community Foundation.

Named by Time magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2010, Merrigan has been a consistent champion for families, farmers, and the environment throughout her career, launching the USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food,” overseeing the development of the USDA Organic standards in an earlier role at the USDA, and working for Senator Leahy as senior staff to the Senate Agriculture committee.

Merrigan will offer her perspective on where Vermont fits in the national picture on these issues, which are central to the Community Foundation’s Food and Farm Initiative.

Common Good Vermont presents Cecile Green of RoundSky Solutions as she discusses "Horizontal Leadership", a paradigm that harnesses everyone as a leader. We'll discuss different ways to look at "power" and how it is used in organizations.

Common Good Vermont interviews Brigitte Ritchie, Key Bank Foundation's Director of Community Relations about a new grant giving competition. Co-sponsored with FreePressMedia, the Build a Stronger Vermont grant giving competition; offers grants to three Vermont non-profits, ranging from $10,000 to $25,000. All eligible Vermont nonprofits are invited to submit a plan detailing their efforts to improve financial literacy or workplace development and how they would use the grant funds to aid in this process. Submissions are due by 5:00 p.m. on October 15, 2013. As part of Build a Stronger Vermont, a select panel of judges will narrow the field of entries to a maximum of eight finalists. Vermont residents are charged with the process of selecting the final grant recipients by voting for their favorite plans online or using the ballot in the Burlington Free Press. Ballots may be dropped off at any KeyBank branch or mailed in. Voting begins on November 18, more details can be found at http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/legacy/customers/MD/KeyBank/KeyBankApplication.pdf

The nonprofit with the most votes will receive a one-time $25,000 grant from KeyBank Foundation. The first runner up will receive a $15,000 grant and the second runner up will receive a $10,000 grant.KeyBank Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable foundation that through its: civic programs, corporate contributions, and volunteerism; supports organizations and programs that foster economic self-sufficiency.Qualifying non-profits can request more information from brigitte_ritchie@keybank.com or call 802-660-4223.

More details may be found here.

Vermont Community Foundation has a new Understanding Vermont report titled "Local Food for Healthy Communities: Bringing Food Security to all Vermonters." Jen Petersen, VCF's Vice-President for Program & Grants talks about the VCF's Farm and Food Initiative and its goal to make sure we have a fair and just local food system in Vermont. The local food movement is thriving, but there are still too many Vermonters who, for any number of reasons, can’t enjoy the benefits of local food – and in fact, who routinely don’t have access to enough food of any kind to meet their nutritional needs. Her discussion is framed by the Local Food for Healthy Communities report--identifying current barriers to access, looking at the need for increasing training business opportunities for farmers, and helping institutions boost processing and other capacity to buy more local food. She also elaborates with host Lauren-Glenn Davitian, on some of the great work under way already by some of the Farm and Food partners.