20 Years of Providing Perishable Food to Upper Valley Residents In Need

Willing Hands, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to ending food insecurity in the Upper Valley, celebrated their 20th anniversary on Thursday, October 10th. Since the organization was founded by Peter Phippen in 2004, the staff and volunteers of Willing Hands have worked to reduce food waste by redistributing perishable food to their 80 recipient organizations, including food shelves, shelters, and assisted living facilities. Willing Hands has made a significant impact on the Upper Valley over these past two decades, and they celebrated with an open house honoring the individuals that make this work possible.

Willing Hands Executive Director Gabe Zoerheide at
the 20th Anniversary celebration.

Gabe Zoerheide became the executive director of Willing Hands in June of 2015, but he has lived in the Upper Valley most of his life, working for various nonprofit organizations. “Nonprofits are an essential part of the social safety net of our community,” Zoerheide explains.

Willing Hands in particular provides a safety net for those experiencing food insecurity in the Upper Valley by delivering perishable food items throughout the area for free. “Food should be a basic human right,” Zoerheide says, “and for a lot of folks in our community, there are financial barriers to access this basic human need.” By taking food that would otherwise be wasted and delivering it to those who need it, Willing Hands is benefitting both the Upper Valley community and the climate.

The organization collects food from a variety of sources: some is grown at their compound on Church Street, some is gleaned from local farms at harvest time, and a majority is donated from Hanover Co-op food stores and other large produce wholesalers. By redistributing this food, Willing Hands prevents 1.1 million pounds of carbon emissions per year, making them a carbon negative organization. The organization keeps careful track of their carbon balance through a climate action plan, measuring the carbon they emit through delivery and food storage and weighing it against the emissions that would have been caused by food waste.

“Reducing food waste is our core mission, and there is a significant carbon avoidance benefit to that,” Zoerheide says. Much of the food that Willing Hands redistributes would have gone to the landfill, and the energy used to produce that food would go to waste. When they receive donations, they sort the food to ensure its quality, store what they will use, and compost what they don’t use in order to fertilize their on-site gardens.

Donations from food distributors and local farms are only one way that the community supports the work of Willing Hands. “We exist because of the community. Without a community of volunteers, supporters, and leaders, our work just wouldn’t exist,” Zoerheide says. Willing Hands relies on hundreds of volunteers that continue showing up each year to grow food, sort food, and glean food. They are largely funded by community members who choose to invest in the work that they do.

As an organization battling food insecurity, the staff of Willing Hands wish that the issues they address no longer existed. “Celebrating that our work is still needed didn’t feel right,” Zoerheide says. So, when it came time to celebrate 20 years of Willing Hands, the organization chose to celebrate the people who make this work possible.

Norwich community members were welcomed into
Willing Hands facilities during the celebration.

The celebration honored founder Peter Phippen, as well as long-standing board chair Jack Lyons, who passed away last spring. Willing Hands thanked Co-op food stores, their largest donor, and former general manager Terry Appleby, who was integral in establishing the lasting connection between Willing Hands and the Co-op. Current board members, staff, and volunteers were also celebrated. Zoerheide described it as a celebration of “the two decades of care that went into the founding, nurturing, and support of the organization.”

At the open house, the Norwich community had the opportunity to learn more about the inner workings and mission of the organization. Their strategic plan includes a focus on equitable distribution throughout the diverse communities of the Upper Valley, and the organization aims to continue making an impact in an inclusive way. “If you don’t carefully examine your actions with an equity lens, you have the potential of not being aware of communities in need or not seeing those who fall through the cracks,” Zoerheide says.

Looking to the future, Willings Hands hopes to continue to expand its operations, find more ways to prevent food waste, and serve the Upper Valley. Willing Hands is prepared to continue redistributing food to Upper Valley residents in need for at least another twenty years, as long as they are supported by the community. “One of the heartwarming things about nonprofits is that they exist because the community cares about them,” Zoerheide says, “And cares about each other.”