Pies for People will celebrate its tenth anniversary this fall, thanks to a group of businesses, nonprofit organizations and committed volunteers who make it happen. The coordinators of this effort aim to make and bake 150 pies in two days right before Thanksgiving. Volunteers are invited to join a crust rolling party on Wednesday, November 14 at 6:30 p.m. at Sterling College with Sterling students, staff and community members to roll out 150 pie crusts.
This effort provides pies for the Hardwick Area Food Pantry, Woodbury food shelf, three free community dinners, schools, nursing homes and others. By the time this year’s project is completed, Pies for People will have made more than 1,000 homemade pumpkin and squash pies over ten years.
The annual project is organized by the Center for an Agricultural Economy, the Hardwick Area Food Pantry and Sterling College, who collect donations and line up volunteers to bake pies from scratch. This year key help comes from Sterling College’s Community Food Action students who will make the pie filling from local ingredients, help roll out the pie crusts and bake half of the pies.
The 300 pounds of squash needed for the pies are gleaned from High Mowing Organic Seeds. CAE staff washed, roasted, peeled and processed the squash this fall and made it into buckets of beautiful orange puree. This year, donations also include flour from King Arthur Flour, butter from Cabot Creamery Cooperative, eggs from Black Dirt Farm and seasonings from Buffalo Mountain Cooperative. Pies will be delivered fresh on November 19 as part of holiday baskets for food pantry clients, with some being hand delivered to other venues or frozen for community dinners later in the month.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the November 14 crust rolling party should contact Allison Van Akkeren at [email protected] Volunteers will receive coffee, dessert and lots of practice rolling crust.
For more information about the Pies for People project, please contact Bethany Dunbar, CAE Community Programs Manager, at (802) 472-5362 ext. 204 or [email protected]
