On a drizzly Wednesday in August, the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust’s Homeownership team gathered next to the farm house in Newfane at the SUSU CommUNITY farm. With staff working across the full footprint of Windham and Windsor Counties working directly with homeowners and contractors on household health and safety repairs, walking homebuyer clients through the purchase process, working on mortgage relief, and managing the VHIP program- the group values the time together in the same place and this particular day, we’d be helping out on the farm.
SUSU CommUNITY farm is an Afro-Indigenous stewarded farm, committed to centering food + land sovereignty through educational opportunities, land-based relationship, and ancestral healing (Find out more here). On Wednesdays, the farm focuses on putting together the weekly Boxes of Resilience: “a no cost box of African diasporic and culturally relevant foods, herbal medicinals, eggs, flowers, and other items each week for 20 weeks from June-October to 45+ families in Windham county vermont.”
With everyone enthusiastic to lend a hand, we harvested peppers, tomatoes, and herbs, we weeded, and had a great time changing pace, getting dirt caked on our clothes and hands.
“I’m happy to bring my team here.” Shared Bruce, Homeownership Director, “Not only for that important interpersonal team building you just can’t get over zoom, but to also give back and support this important farm and mission. It’s crucial for a group of people who are primarily white, to be in a global majority- centered space.”
The Homeownership Center is home to our Green Mountain Home Repair program, Vermont Housing Improvement Program (VHIP) and ADU creation, Homebuyer Counseling, Homebuyer Education, and the Shared Equity Homeownership program. Staff are located from Brattleboro area through the Upper Valley.
