BRATTLEBORO-When Richard Berkfield graduated from the School for International Training in 2008, he could not have imagined he would go on to build a $5 million regional food distribution network that would fundamentally reshape how communities think about local agriculture.
Now, after nearly two decades of pioneering local and regional food distribution, Berkfield, founding director of Food Connects in Brattleboro, is stepping down.
Since March 24, Deputy Director Lee Halpern has served as interim executive director, with Berkfield helping with the transition until May 1.
Berkfield leaves behind a transformed regional food landscape that has connected farmers, schools, and consumers in innovative ways - and an organization that stands as a powerful testament to how mission-driven organizations can create systemic change.
Under Berkfield's leadership, Food Connects has not only experienced organizational growth but also has reimagined the relationship between food, community, and economic sustainability.
Food as a part of culture
Born in Michigan and shaped by experiences in California restaurants, Thai refugee camps, and international education work, Berkfield's journey to food systems leadership was deeply personal.
"I remember my grandparents gardening, and I remember collecting berries as a kid," Berkfield said in a recent interview with The Commons.
As a young adult, he worked in a California restaurant where he "tasted all kinds of different foods and cuisines, and connected with my taste buds in a way I never had before," he said. "I also learned about where that food came from and how it was a part of a culture."
His pivotal moment came while working with refugee communities. He observed how disconnected younger generations had become from traditional food production - a lesson that would later inform his approach to food systems.
"Most people in these communities were subsistence farmers before becoming refugees, and now their kids were experiencing rice being brought in on a truck instead of growing it themselves," Berkfield explained.
From community organizer to social entrepreneur
After graduating from SIT, Berkfield worked as a community organizer with Post Oil Solutions (POS) in Brattleboro.
There, he initially focused on addressing a seemingly simple problem: getting the abundant food produced locally to people in the community experiencing food insecurity, defined federally as "limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways."
Berkfield helped the Vermont Foodbank start a gleaning program to reclaim local food left in the fields after harvest, led workshops on growing one's own food, and participated in meetings to create farm-to-school programs to feed students locally.
"We learned a lot and did a lot," said Berkfield. "We were throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick."
While at POS, Berkfield heard stakeholders repeatedly identify food distribution as a key barrier to building a resilient local food system. The organization began a number of programs with the common theme of finding local markets for farms and local food for Vermonters.
In 2013, Berkfield and Katherine (Gillespie) Jandernoa left POS to develop Food Connects as a separate nonprofit for the food programs.
It began with a straightforward mission: to solve the distribution challenges preventing local farms from reaching institutional buyers.
From its preceding POS projects, the nonprofit's food hub aggregated and distributed food products in the region, and its Farm to School program improved access to healthy foods and strengthened school nutrition programs.
Twelve years later, Food Connects still faces challenges, but what started as a small initiative with just four staff members has grown to more than 30 employees and a network spanning multiple states.
The current mission is expansive, aimed at "transforming the local food system to create healthy families, thriving farms, and connected communities."
The organization's food hub distributes products like hummus, blueberries, apples, yogurt, and ground beef to schools, hospitals, co-ops, and farm stands. In 2024, Food Connects' five refrigerated trucks traveled more than 100,000 miles to collect and deliver from 134 regional producers to 366 customers.
During the 2023–24 school year, Food Connects delivered $539,676 worth of regionally sourced food, grown and produced by 61 local farms and businesses, to 16 school districts across Vermont. The Farm to School program also provides technical assistance to schools implementing nutrition education, cooking carts, taste tests, and school gardens.
The organization's innovative approach goes beyond traditional distribution. By creating a source-identified model, Food Connects allows customers to trace every product to its exact farm of origin - an act of transparency that empowers consumers and supports local producers.
Food Connects' growth has included the acquisition of a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in 2022 in the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation's Business Park in the former Book Press facility on Putney Road.
The additional space offers cold storage capacity, allowing the organization to distribute more efficiently.
During the pandemic, the organization's strategic investments proved transformative. "We were ready enough when the pandemic hit," Berkfield said. "We had built infrastructure that allowed us to become a trusted supplier when others failed."
When global supply chains collapsed, Food Connects' sales doubled, demonstrating the resilience of regional food networks.
Over the years, Berkfield's leadership style, characterized by shared leadership, collaboration, and systems thinking, has been credited as being crucial to the organization's success. As a Gen X leader, he prioritized developing talent in his staff, creating a culture where employees remain deeply connected to the mission even after they move on.
Berkfield's collaborative approach extended beyond local borders. He was instrumental in creating four food hub networks, including collaboratives in Vermont, New Hampshire, New England, and the Eastern Food Hub Collaborative, stretching from Georgia to Maine. These networks became platforms for shared learning and advocacy.
'Our goal is sustainability, not profit'
Behind every locally sourced carrot and grass-fed beef patty lies a complex economic challenge that most consumers never see.
Berkfield explained the financial balancing act of bringing local food from producer to buyer.
"We can drive 50 miles and potentially lose money," he said. "If we sell $250 worth of food on a truck route, we're operating at a loss. It takes around $500 in sales just to break even."
Unlike large national distributors, which can consolidate massive orders, Food Connects must navigate rural Vermont's challenging geography, aggregating small orders from multiple producers and buyers.
While larger distributors profit by squeezing farmers, Food Connects returns approximately 80 cents of every dollar to them. The organization deliberately maintains tight margins to support producers.
"We're a social enterprise. We try to make money but not on the backs of producers and not by raising prices," Berkfield explained. Our goal is sustainability, not profit."
Federal funding cuts are complicating this delicate economic ecosystem. Under the Trump administration, the organization is potentially losing several hundred thousand dollars in federal grants.
"We've had several sources frozen, and we're waiting to see if they will be terminated," Berkfield said.
The Local Food for Schools program, federally funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that supported schools in buying local produce, was cut earlier this year, significantly impacting the organization's operations.
"The cut affects more than just our bottom line," Berkfield noted. "It means less food on kids' plates and less support for local farmers."
The funding cuts could reduce the amount of local food schools purchase, directly impacting Food Connects' ability to deliver food and support regional producers.
Berkfield is grateful to a core group of funders that have helped the organization grow. "The Vermont Community Foundation has been a partner from the very beginning," he noted. Funding has also come from USDA Rural Development and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.
Opportunities, risks, and mistakes
While Food Connects is a nonprofit, Berkfield calls himself a social entrepreneur: one who established an enterprise to effect social change.
He sees a paradigm shift in the nonprofit world, as more organizations are becoming entrepreneurial by creating brands, recognizing the need for talent, being willing to pay for it, and earning fees for services.
Berkfield believes risk taking is a critical component of entrepreneurship. "You identify opportunities, you take risks, and you make mistakes," he said. "And that's also a life lesson."
"There's no way to get to $5 million in annual revenues without lots of risk," he said.
This News item by Ellen Pratt was written for The Commons.