On Wednesday mornings, Morgana Isenberg can be found arranging produce and flowers. With the help of volunteers, she packs bags of fresh produce, dairy and eggs. She readies bouquets of hand-cut flowers. Then she waits for the cars to start rolling in.
The drive-through farmer’s market, which is free and open to the public, is hosted by the White River Junction Vet Center and takes place in the LISTEN Community Services parking lot. The market serves about 65 families per week. “I don’t want anyone to feel bad or embarrassed because they need some help,” Morgana says.
With an emphasis on holistic well-being, the Vet Center provides mental health services and connects veterans to the community. “We feed your mind, body and soul here at the Vet Center,” Morgana says. She gives a bouquet of flowers–grown by hand at her home and in the VA greenhouse–to each car that comes through the market.
Like many initiatives, the market began during the food security crisis in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, demand has only increased. One recent Wednesday, all of the food was gone within 40 minutes.
Willing Hands delivers fresh food to the Vet Center every week. “Being able to provide such amazing produce makes me proud,” Morgana says, noting that market visitors often mention looking up recipes and trying new meals that involve unfamiliar vegetables like beets or fennel.
Morgana says everyone who drives through is grateful for the free, healthy food, which is helping make ends meet in an era of astronomical food prices. “My family really needs this,” one visitor recently said. Another, a Vietnam veteran, comes all the way from Rutland to pick up produce, which is required in his diet due to his health issues. Morgana and her volunteers spend a few hours a week making deliveries to veterans who can’t leave their houses and mothers referred to the Vet Center by WISE.
The reliable supply of healthy food and fresh flowers are nourishing families, one week at a time. “It’s not a hand out,” she says. “It’s a hand up.”
