Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help), March 30, 2021
April meeting program takes a look at immigrant farmworkers in Vermont, and their struggle for legal status and rights
As we’ve learned in the last year, our food supply is brought to us by a previously unappreciated group of workers. We found out that “essential workers” include people who grow, process and ship our food and grocery items, and those who staff the stores where we buy them.
This month, our bi-monthly Grange Program series builds on some of the discussion at our last program (about Hollister Hill Farm in Plainfield) about farming, small farms vs. large agribusiness, state regulation and farmers’ rights. We’ll be looking at the community of immigrant farm workers who are a vital part of keeping Vermont’s hard-pressed dairy farms going. These in turn support major Vermont dairy industries, like Ben & Jerry’s and Cabot Cheese, plus the milk sold to dairy processors and grocery chains.
This month, our bi-monthly Grange Program series builds on some of the discussion at our last program (about Hollister Hill Farm in Plainfield) about farming, small farms vs. large agribusiness, state regulation and farmers’ rights. We’ll be looking at the community of immigrant farm workers who are a vital part of keeping Vermont’s hard-pressed dairy farms going. These in turn support major Vermont dairy industries, like Ben & Jerry’s and Cabot Cheese, plus the milk sold to dairy processors and grocery chains.
As it has been since the advent of the COVID-19 virus in our communities, our Program will be available via ZOOM. Grange Lecturer Carl Etnier has been in touch with Migrant Justice, the organization of those farmworkers which has been working since 2009 to gain rights and better working conditions for them. Carl has arranged for a showing of two short films: “Milk with Dignity” and “Impact of Milk with Dignity”, about Migrant Justice’s campaign. For several years, Migrant Justice has been putting pressure on dairy businesses to sign onto the Milk with Dignity pledge to require all milk they buy to be produced on farms that treat workers fairly. Since the landmark agreement with Ben & Jerry’s in 2017, Migrant Justice has been campaigning to get other corporations–notably Hannaford’s Supermarkets–on board.
In addition to the films, Carl has arranged for a local farmworker to join us–via Zoom of course–to be part of our discussion. We’ll have a chance to discuss the films, what the campaign means for the people most directly affected, and ways that Grange members and friends can be part of this effort.
For more info on Migrant Justice, please visit their website: migrantjustice.net, to see info about the origin of the group, the injustices they work against, the awards they have received and the ongoing struggles they and their members face.
For more info on Migrant Justice, please visit their website: migrantjustice.net, to see info about the origin of the group, the injustices they work against, the awards they have received and the ongoing struggles they and their members face.
To join us on Saturday, April 3rd from 5:00 to 6:00 for the film and discussion, please go to:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID 826 1666 4552
To join the meeting, audio only from your phone, dial this number: 646 558 8656
Remember, Zoom link info is always posted on the Grange Website Calendar listing for Grange meetings & programs.
To join the meeting, audio only from your phone, dial this number: 646 558 8656
Remember, Zoom link info is always posted on the Grange Website Calendar listing for Grange meetings & programs.
April Grange meeting–4:30 to 5:00
As usual in even-numbered months, we’ll have a brief meeting for Grange members and anyone else who would like to join us. We’ll take a look at our finances, and discuss the changes in public health regulations and how they will change our ability to rent to some groups as vaccinations begin to be more common, and the warmer weather increases our ventilation possibilities. We will also discuss plans for our display at the Champlain Valley Fair in August!
To join by phone for audio: 646 558 8656
March meeting: considering options for extending tax exemption
A small group of Grange members attended the Zoom meeting on March 3rd; we had a good discussion of how to proceed, now that Berlin has voted us only a partial tax exemption for the 2021 tax year. Because of the Selectboard’s re-wording of the Article we had proposed for the Town Ballot, we were only able to ask for exemption from Town taxes, not from the much larger School tax segment of the tax bill. We were very encouraged by the large margin of support we got from Berlin voters, who supported us by an almost 4:1 margin.
The complete tax exemption we were voted in 2016 for 5 years has been a huge boon, allowing us to concentrate on improving the community services we offer, and on ways to improve the Community Hall we provide for Berlin and the surrounding communities, rather than having to worry about how to pay the tax bill. Our all-volunteer membership and building management team has done a great job using this time, and would like to continue to focus on these positive efforts. Of course, the last year has cut the income we receive from renters to a trickle of support from just a couple of dedicated renters, who have continued to pay despite not being able to use the Hall. Our finances are even more precarious than they used to be. We have been able to survive because we have been able to keep our thermostats very low, substantially reduced snow-plowing during the winter, and have reduced electrical bills. Contributions from generous members of the Grange community have kept us solvent, but hardly thriving.
We look forward to slowly improving health conditions in the later months of 2021–but it will be a slow process. We expect that even after we are allowed to host events, it will take time for people to be willing to gather in groups. The dance events that have been our biggest rental events will be among the last types allowed to re-open. The close contact and aerobic activity which are central parts of the dances are among the best ways to spread viruses, so we will be looking to the CDC, the VT Dept. of Health and the national dance communities for guidance on how we can eventually open our doors for these events, in as safe a way as possible.
Given the continuing poor financial conditions we expect, we decided at our March meeting that we will need to apply for an abatement of the taxes we will be billed for the 2021 tax year. The grounds for abatement that we will use is inability to pay, based on the great reduction in income we have experienced since March of 2021. These decisions are “at the discretion of the Board of Abatement”, which consists of the Selectboard, the Treasurer, the Listers and the Justices of the Peace for the Town. So there is no guarantee that we will be granted this form of relief.
Given the continuing poor financial conditions we expect, we decided at our March meeting that we will need to apply for an abatement of the taxes we will be billed for the 2021 tax year. The grounds for abatement that we will use is inability to pay, based on the great reduction in income we have experienced since March of 2021. These decisions are “at the discretion of the Board of Abatement”, which consists of the Selectboard, the Treasurer, the Listers and the Justices of the Peace for the Town. So there is no guarantee that we will be granted this form of relief.
We also expect to seek a 5-year exemption from all property taxes again, at the 2022 Town Meeting. We will need to get signatures on petitions to get this specific wording on the Article for the Town Meeting, and will then have to advocate for why we deserve this. As we did before, we will discuss the many ways we benefit the Central Vermont community, including the Town of Berlin, and the policy of providing free use of the Hall to Berlin residents and organizations we have continued since 2016. We have talked about ways to elevate the profile of the Grange, especially once we can hold events there again, to make sure people know about the Grange, our improved facilities, and the range of events that take place there. We will be looking to all Grange members and friends to help us spread the word, as we are gradually able to re-open and become an active community hub again.
We can expect more discussion of these plans as we get closer to time to get petitions signed. Continued improvement in the public health situation will make all of this easier–and we urge all community members to comply with public health policies to keep the situation improving!
Champlain Valley Fair
It’s on: CCG at the CVF. At our March meeting, and in email exchanges since then, we found several folks who will help with creating a display, staffing a table and promoting the work of the Grange at the Champlain Valley Fair, Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. At this point (150 days away, according to the CVF website), the fair is scheduled to be open to the public, and we’ll be part of the action. Stay tuned for more info!
April: “scheduled shopping” at Kids Trade and Play
Erin Barry, lead organizer of the clothing exchange for kids, parents and families has been able to keep it going during the depths of the winter with “curbside service”. In April, as the weather warms, we are going to try a restricted version of the “old tradition” of personal selection, on Saturday, April 10th from 9:30 to 11:30 AM.
Erin will be asking people to sign up for half-hour “shopping windows”, when a maximum of 10 people will be allowed to be in the basement selecting items from the many bins of clothes there. We hope for warm enough weather that we can get extra ventilation in the basement by opening windows and using fans. If possible, we encourage families to send one person, to keep the numbers as low as possible.
Sign-up info for the shopping windows will be posted soon on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/
There will also be an opportunity to bring in donations. The KT&P volunteers ask that all items brought in be clean, with all clothing un-ripped and stain-free. Items that don’t meet these standards just end up in the landfill, so please have high standards before you bring them in! For large donations, please contact Erin at the email address above to arrange when to come in. The small crew of volunteers will be very busy on the day of the exchange!
A “clerical” note: new PO box
The truly alert reader may have noticed a new detail in red, in the header at the top of these Notes: our Grange PO box has changed. We realized that the large PO box we have used for years is overkill for the small volume of postal mail we receive, so we have rented a smaller one. Please update your address books with our UPDATED mailing address:
PO Box 234
Northfield Falls VT 05664
The PO box is mostly for mail to the Treasurer, general inquiries about the Grange, and communications from State and National Grange.
PO Box 234
Northfield Falls VT 05664
The PO box is mostly for mail to the Treasurer, general inquiries about the Grange, and communications from State and National Grange.