It’s early morning, around 8:30, on a beautiful fall day, September 19th. Although it’s unseasonably warm, the fall leaves are peaking out around the area, the sun is shining, and the surrounding views truly remind us it’s fall in Vermont. We are gathered in a circle introducing ourselves and taking the time to stretch before we embark on the day. It is the morning of Vermont’s Annual Service Day.
Hallam-ICS’ Vermont office chose to do their service day at Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) in Richmond, VT. “VYCC is a nonprofit organization with a mission to take action and build community by working and learning together with the land.”
VYCC has 2 programs, the Conservation Program and the Food & Farm Program. The Conservation Program teaches youth and young adults how to complete projects in Vermont’s parks, forests, mountains and rivers. They focus on maintaining both mountain biking and hiking trails, water quality, building lean-tos for parks, and forest health, including removing invasive species and removing hazardous trees.
The greenhouse
The Food & Farm Program facilitates working on a 400-acre campus, that grows 11 acres of organic vegetables and raises chickens for meat and eggs. Youth and young adults are taught how to grow vegetables, raise animals, and prepare farm fresh meals for their communities. They also contribute food to the Health Care Share, which is Vermont’s first and largest prescription vegetable program, providing Vermont families with fresh organic food at no cost to them. The HCS is funded by medical centers, farm stand sales, other businesses and philanthropy.
To begin the day, the VYCC staff split us into groups based on our preferences. When they asked who wanted to “lift heavy things” my hand shot up and I became the heavy lifting group. The other groups were picking peppers, tiling the garden, weeding, processing onions, and more.
Onion Processing Station
My group ended up walking about half a mile to the carrot processing area, who knew cleaning and packing carrots was considered “heavy lifting”. They had a wooden vegetable washer, long vegetable brushes and a water system that continually sprayed the vegetables as the machine turned them around to clean them. Being that we are a group of engineers, a couple of people in my group thought of a better way to adjust the water sprayers so the vegetables got cleaner, quicker, and the staff loved it!
Daniel Morton and Fenn Rider on carrot washing duty
Most groups switched up activities after lunch, but our group did carrots all day, there were so many – my hands were orange by the end of the day. We washed all the carrots and after they dried in a bin, we weighed them to about 2lbs and put them in bags and crates. They all got packed back in the walk-in fridge where they will remain all winter. I didn’t know carrots could last that long!
While we were weighing and bagging carrots, we got to get to know a couple of the women staff members and how they came to be working and living in Richmond, VT. One was from California, and she was interested in the farming world and Vermont and decided to make the move for this job and maybe stay around the area after. She was explaining how much they learn at this farm while they are working here and the tremendous opportunity to get hands on experience in a new place.
Sarah Lester and Pamela Mountain on carrot weighing/bagging duty
Around noon our lunch arrived, and we all took a break from the heat in a beautiful, restored barn that they even use for weddings and functions. People were hot, sweaty and hungry! As we grabbed our lunches and split up around the tables everyone was asking “What did you do?” to those in a different group, explaining our newly found farm knowledge to each other. Some were in the sun for hours; some were in the shade, but everyone looked like they had been doing some hard farm work!
After lunch most of the groups switched up activities to something different and remained there until the end of the day. We had about 20 employees from Vermont able to make it, plus the VYCC staff and we were able to get a ton done!
Surprise guest, recently retired Ray Racine came to help with all the carrots
It was great to volunteer our time to help an organization that is fighting the fight against food insecurity, teaching youth and young adults the importance of growing organic food and shining light on the needs of our communities and taking action to support them.
Check out their website here: https://www.vycc.org/
Check out VYCC’s help to repair Vermont after flooding: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/youth-conservation-crews-head-out-to-repair-damage-from-2023-floods-40955296
About the author
Sarah Lester joined Hallam-ICS as the Senior Office Coordinator in January of 2022, after 7 years in the tech industry, working for a software company that focused on Affordable Housing and HUD regulations. Sarah can usually be found at a Phish show, hiking with her husband or finishing yet another book with her kitties by her side. Sarah jumped right into getting involved in the Social Mission here at Hallam-ICS.
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About Hallam-ICS
Hallam-ICS is an engineering and automation company that designs MEP systems for facilities and plants, engineers control and automation solutions, and ensures safety and regulatory compliance through arc flash studies, commissioning, and validation. Our offices are located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, North Carolina Texas and Florida and our projects take us world-wide. 
