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Deep dives into both timely and timeless food system topics
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FEED Kearsarge hosts successful 1st Annual Food Security Summit!
It was deeply heartening to see the Kearsarge community come together so strongly on Saturday, April 18th, for FEED Kearsarge’s very first Food Security Summit!
At Kearsarge Regional High School, 120 attendees representing over 40 businesses and organizations—including farms, food pantries, healthcare and social services, education, land use and conservation, and policy and advocacy —gathered to tackle a vital question:
How do we move from feeding people to ending hunger to building resilient local and regional food systems that nourish all of us?
Food Security Report
Coming soon - a complete Food Security Report on the state of the Food System and Food Access in the Kearsarge Region!
A Crisis of Food Affordability
FEED Kearsarge is a local coalition working to solve this problem together—and you can help.
Last fall we faced temporary lapse in SNAP benefits from the government shutdown, affecting 76,000 residents in New Hampshire. Although SNAP has been reinstated, cuts from the One Big Beautiful Bill are compromising food assistance for many Granite Staters. Yet, for all food buyers there is a larger, ongoing issue: a crisis of food affordability. This crisis is leading to widespread food insecurity and economic anxiety for many people.
Exciting New Partnership: Kearsarge Food Hub Joins Forces with Sunset Hill Education Institute
We are so excited to announce that the Kearsarge Food Hub (KFH) is partnering with the Sunset Hill Education Institute (SHEI) for our farm education programs this year!
SHEI is a local nonprofit whose mission is to empower individuals to grow resiliency and a purposeful, nourishing life story through a barrier-free connection to community and nature. Their mission beautifully aligns with ours here at KFH to reinvigorate our community within a restorative local food system. That’s what makes this such a dreamy—and impactful—new partnership.
Food Insecurity is Hitting Home in our Community
FEED Kearsarge is a local coalition working to solve this problem together—and you can help.
Whether or not neighbors have enough food to eat is not a partisan issue. Access to food is a basic human right and food security is a matter of local and national security; when neighbors are hungry, entire communities suffer. This is not some problem “out there”— people face hunger every day right here in the Kearsarge region.
The truth is, many people are doing everything they can to make ends meet but the math just isn’t adding up as the cost of living rises across the board.
New Seasonal Menu at The Beet!
A change of season means a change of menu here at Sweet Beet Cafe.
Eating with our seasons means we get to support our local farmers all year long, and shifting into winter means creative new menu items with the new produce we have most abundant access to!
There are some cozy new menu items, like the Winter Warmer Grain Bowl and the Mushroom Grilled Cheese, which you are likely going to want to add BRISKET to.
Other incredible brisket options include The Mexi Dip and Brisket Breakfast sandwich.
Let's just say the kitchen crew has not been slacking!!
Sweet Beet 2025 Wrapped
What a year 2025 was! Take a look at our year in review with Sweet Beet’s 2025 Wrapped!
THANK YOU for being a part of this community with us. Thank you for shopping local, supporting hundreds of local and regional farmers and food producers.
Because of everyone, like you, who shopped local in 2025, we are collectively having an IMPACT and supporting our neighbors.
These numbers matter!!!! They are fun to look back on, but they are also super important indicators of how supportive we are of our local food economy, and even the health of our planet.
Tiny Seeds, Big Skills: How a Community Is Helping KRHS Students Design a Tiny House on Wheels
An article from Sweet Beet Market + Cafe sponsor Artisans New London by Marcy Vierzen
Sometimes a small idea becomes the spark for something much bigger. When members of our nonprofit Ampli5E began building a Tiny House on Wheels in a New London driveway in the summer of 2025, none of us could have predicted what that experience would grow into. What began as a hands-on experiment—shaped by problem-solving, creativity, mentoring from incredibly skilled community members, and more learning curves than we ever imagined—quickly became something deeper.
2025 Season of Gratitude & Giving Success!
Thanks to over 150 generous supporters, we raised $102,284 (and counting!) during the Season of Gratitude & Giving! This was our biggest annual fundraiser yet, and this community really showed up. Thank you so much!
Shop Local Holiday Gifts!
BEST TIME of the year!!!
Our annual Holiday Pop Up is up and running (until December 29th!), with a stunning array of goods crafted by our talented local community members.
We have thirteen amazing vendors set up in the Community Room this year!
Pop in the Community Room at Sweet Beet (11 West Main Street in Bradford, NH) between November 25th and December 29th to shop our local holiday pop up!
Meeting the Moment
Watch this high quality recording of a panel discussion with food system leaders working to support food security, sustainable agriculture, and strategic action here in the Granite State.
Every November, the Kearsarge Food Hub hosts an annual event called Love Local where the primary goal is to, in the words of Adrienne Marie Brown, “come back to the scale of being a human in community.”
Leading with Values
Like the four directions of a compass, our organizational values guide us to build the vibrant, resilient, and joyful world we know is possible.
Since day one, the Kearsarge Food Hub has been a values-driven organization, and yet it was not until this year that we sat down to articulate them in words, pass them officially through our board of directors, and move into a new era of actively using these values as guideposts for how we the work we do.
Eat and Share Good Local Food This Thanksgiving
Keep your dollars here in our local economy, and nourish not only your family this holiday season but our shared community as well!
Did you know that when you pre-order your Thanksgiving turkey, ham, sides or full meals, there is also an option where you can donate to a neighbor who may be in need this year?
Start your own Community FREEdge
Use this handy guide to support the free flow of nourishment in your neighborhood.
The Kearsarge Food Hub has been operating a Community FREEdge - Free Fridge - onsite at Sweet Beet Market since 2021. This resource is a 24/7, no questions asked food access site for folks to find fresh produce from local farms, prepared meals from Sweet Beet Cafe, and grocery items like milk, eggs, yogurt, bread, and canned goods.
SNAP Freeze Response Plan
The community responds to support folks as federal food assistance disappears.
Starting November 1st, federal food assistance programs like SNAP and WIC that help over 42 million Americans afford to buy food will be frozen due to the government shutdown.
Here’s how we’re meeting the moment.
New Leadership Sparks Fresh Beginnings at Kearsarge Food Hub!
The Kearsarge Food Hub team is excited to share that we have hired a new Executive Director to help us grow into the next decade: Rob McGregor!
We had many great candidates for this position, and Rob rose to the surface a committed leader with both the skills and the heart to help the organization grow meaningfully into the years ahead.
Rob brings to the Kearsarge Food Hub a track record of nonprofit leadership, with deep experience in financial, strategic and organizational management.
There’s a new farmer in town!
Farmer Jake finishes his farmer apprenticeship on Sweet Beet Farm here at the Kearsarge Food Hub!
Jake McCormack-Lashier and his partner Cassie were Kearsarge Food Hub’s first farmer apprentices five years ago, and Jake has been deepening his learning on Sweet Beet Farm every year since then.
Food Drive Victory! - We Did it.
When we first made the goal of collecting 1,000 items for our Back to School Food Drive, we knew it was ambitious, and we knew it would only happen if our community rallied together to make it happen.
And we did it!!! With YOUR help - we collected over 1,000 items for our Back to School Food Drive!
Our final count was 1,051 items, which will help fill our FREEdge for one calendar year.
The FREEdge is our on-site food pantry, accessible for anybody at anytime, no questions asked. As you may know, we stock the FREEdge weekly with fresh and local produce as well as cafe food from our very own Sweet Beet Cafe.
The non-perishable items collected during the food drive will perfectly supplement the FREEdges fresh offerings!
Now feels like a more important time than ever to help our neighbors in need, so thank you to everyone who was a part of this year’s Food Drive - we most definitely could not have done this without you.
This has been a true testament to the power of working together to make a collective goal come to fruition.
2025 Community Fair Reflections
On September 27th, we welcomed friends and neighbors to the lawn around Sweet Beet Market + Cafe for Kearsarge Food Hub and Friends’ 5th Annual Community Fair. The sun was shining, the autumn air was fresh, the food was delicious, the art was beautiful, and the music was rockin’—we couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day!
SHOP, SAVE, and SUPPORT local food security
In honor of Hunger Action Month, we're launching a Back to School Food Drive kicking off September 1st. We have an ambitious goal to collect 1,000 donated grocery items from our Sweet Beet Customers, like you!