11/01/2025
Please consider helping these tremendously valuable members of Vermont's apple grower community. The good folks from Jamaica who return every year to support many of Vermont's orchards are facing devastating loss and hardship back home. Let's show them we are a community who cares for one another.
As many followers of this page likely know, most of the apples in Vermont orchards are picked by absolutely incredible individuals from Jamaica. These members of our harvest crews are like family and work incredibly hard year in and year out to pick and pack the apples that put food on our tables. Without them, many orchards simply would not exist.
We're heartbroken at the devastation in their home country of Jamaica this week from Hurricane Melissa. Many orchards have put together fundraising campaigns in support of their workers, including Paul Mazza's Fruit and Vegetable Stand, Scott Farm Orchard, Stine Orchard, Hackett's Orchard (accepting dry goods and cash), and a combined campaign benefiting workers at Champlain Orchards, Green Mountain Orchards, Dutton Berry Farm, Farmstand & Greenhouse, Sunrise Orchards, Shelburne Orchards, and Southern Vermont Orchards. Please reach out to your local orchard and see if they are providing a way to support Jamaican workers and do what you can to help.
If your orchard has a fundraiser that isn't listed here, please comment, and we will add it to this post!
