Our Mission
Willing Hands recovers fresh food to reduce food waste and expand equitable and reliable access to fresh food.
Our Values
Volunteerism: Volunteering is foundational to advancing our mission and creates connectedness in our community.
Environmental Stewardship: Reducing food waste is our organization’s most impactful opportunity to mitigate the climate crisis. We seek to reduce our carbon footprint and protect the environment throughout our operations.
Advancing Equity: All people should have access to nourishing, fresh food. We are committed to more deeply understanding and responding to the diverse needs, preferences, and circumstances of those in our community. We are committed to ensuring all those who engage with our organization feel included, respected, and able to thrive.
Strengthening Our Community: Strong, mutually beneficial partnerships are key to community resilience. We appreciate, support, and collaborate with local farms, donors, recipient organizations, and community partners to contribute to our community’s collective well-being.
Our Model
Willing Hands has become one of the most successful hunger relief and food recovery organizations in New England. Our concept is simple and effective:
- We receive surplus fresh produce, dairy, eggs, meat, and bread from food donors such as farms, grocery stores, and wholesalers.
- Volunteers harvest leftover produce from local farms and grow produce in our four Willing Hands gardens.
- Our drivers deliver this food weekly, year-round, to 80 recipient organizations throughout the Upper Valley. These include food shelves, income-based housing, and child, senior, and Veterans’ centers.
- More of our neighbors have reliable access to the fresh foods they want.
Food Recovery
Reducing food waste is a significant way to counter climate change. When local food stores and wholesalers have excess fresh food at risk of going to waste, Willing Hands picks it up and brings it back to our Norwich facility. Our Warehouse & Delivery Team carefully sorts and tracks all food donations and prepares daily deliveries to our partner organizations across the Upper Valley.
To learn more about how our operations contribute to community-scale climate solutions, visit our Environmental Impact page.
Volunteer Support
Willing Hands relies on a large network of volunteers to harvest fruits and vegetables from local farms and grow produce in our four gardens.
Gleaning is a form of food recovery where the leftover produce from a farm’s harvest is picked so it doesn’t go to waste. Willing Hands partners with farms and orchards throughout the region to host volunteer groups for gleaning sessions.
Willing Hands is a member of the Vermont Gleaning Collective and New Hampshire Gleans.
Gardening is a central part of our volunteer program. We manage four volunteer-powered gardens to grow specific crops that provide a more balanced supply of produce year-round. The gardens, totaling approximately 8 acres of land, host volunteer sessions throughout the growing season and function as community engagement, education, and team-building spaces.
Our gardens are located at:
- 198 Church Street, Norwich
- River Road, Norwich
- Sunny Fields Garden at Cedar Circle Farm
- The Farmacy at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center