The Intervale Center

The Intervale Center is a nonprofit that engages local farmers and eaters at every step of the supply chain of local food, from pre-production planning to post-consumer waste disposal. It has a local food education program for young people, a farm enterprise business incubator for new farmers, business consulting services for established farmers, and a land preservation initiative. The state’s first and biggest CSA is based there (it has since spun off as an independent farming cooperative). So, as noted, has Chittenden County’s composting program.

As an organization comprising multiple programs, initiatives and enterprises, the Center is continually evaluating its operations against a triple bottom line of profitability, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility. According to Glenn McRae, the Center’s Executive Director, “Our conservation nursery works to provide farms with appropriate ecological services to become more sustainable in their communities. The Intervale farmers give back to the community in many ways. They participate in programs with local youth and volunteers that provide fresh food to local food pantries. It is a great cycle of mutual benefit when it is all seen together.”

One of the Intervale Center’s signature accomplishments is blending for-profit management with nonprofit enterprise. Couple that with the Intervale Center’s deep sense of place and its commitment to the surrounding land, and you’ve got the Center’s operational philosophy. “We hold an incredible community asset in trust,” Glenn notes. “We could think about divorcing ourselves from the land, but the core idea of the Intervale Center is to revitalize this land and help it produce for the local community.”

Unlike most nonprofits, the Intervale Center has placed a high premium on the financial sustainability of most of its programs. An example is the Farm Incubator Program that has provided start up support for emerging and small organic farmers since 1995. Incubator farms get subsidized rates and access to equipment and mentoring. The fees start low and only rise as the farmers’ independent businesses expand and they reach enterprise status after three years.

“The Intervale is an incredible platform for young aspiring farmers to take a risk and launch an enterprise, and when they emerge from incubator status they are prepared to pay market rates to continue,” observes Glenn. “It has proven to be a great model for establishing viable sustainable organic farm enterprises.”

A new Center program, Success on Farms, continues the focus on incubation outside the Intervale. This farm viability program, funded by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, provides free, customized business planning and technical support services for growing farms throughout northern Vermont.

The Intervale’s economic structure leverages revenue from its most profitable programs to underwrite other start-ups or initiatives with stronger social missions. New ventures often emerge from the direct needs of Intervale farms and the broader farm community, such as the identification and documentation of distribution and storage needs. “We’re about fifty-fifty between our contracts and earned income versus our foundation and charitable gifts,” Glenn reports. “Because we don’t have to generate all of our revenues, we can build up enterprises, look to evolving systems and needs, try to understand what the obstacles are, and how to fill them, try solutions out, and develop something that is really functional.”

The desire to increase self-financing also has led the Intervale staff members to redesign programs or shut down those that are no longer effective. For instance, the composting program outgrew Intervale’s ability to successfully manage it, and was recently turned over to the Chittenden County Solid Waste District. The Healthy City program built up a Youth Farm element that could not be effectively executed long-term, so it was replaced by an educational outreach program for Burlington’s at-risk kids.

Should the Intervale Center have been a for-profit? “I could argue either side of that,” says Will. “I do think that because we were talking about becoming stewards of a very large portion of open space and public land, we had to be a nonprofit entity. The city couldn’t sell two hundred acres to a private buyer.” But, Will adds, had the Intervale been a for-profit, it might have attracted private finance and been able to move more quickly on some of its business ideas.

Several factors have contributed to the success of the Intervale Center. The model could not have happened had there not been a large and underutilized parcel of land. It also required a formal partnership with city, county, and state officials who provided the leverage to secure the land and needed capital. And it was critically important that, despite its nonprofit structure, the Intervale Center kept business development at the core.