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About Us

POST OIL SOLUTIONS is a group of citizens from the Southeast Vermont bio-region who began meeting in June 2005. We joined together to take our first, modest steps toward creating more cooperative, self-sufficient communities. Our goal is to learn about and develop sustainable practices in our homes, neighborhoods, and larger communities, so as to begin creating the infrastructure in our region necessary for a post oil society.

None of the following could have been attempted, much less accomplished, without the great number of unbelievable community activists and incredible VISTA volunteers we have been blessed with over the years. Post Oil is not a membership organization, nor do we have a paid staff; we have always been dependent upon inspired and committed people, the many folks over the years that we have always lovingly referred to as “little pos” who have made POS what it has been--and still is!—a truly community project.

 

Education and Resources

As a foundation to our key program areas, POS is dedicated to sharing information on Global Climate Change and Peak Oil Research. We provide educational materials and resources for building sustainable communities that strive to effectively transition into a post oil society.

Post Oil Education

Global Warming/ Energy Depletion Email Update

Periodic emails go out to the listserve that share articles from mainstream media sources that are often overlooked. Its a great way to receive a digest of major news that isn’t being treated as major by the mainstream media. Join the POS listserve.

Public Forums, Speakers, and Workshops

We aim to bring community members together to learn about and participate in discussions around issues facing us. Speakers, films, and experts both local and visiting contribute richness to our continues dialogue around building sustainable communities.

Stay tuned for upcoming events.

Resources

Post Oil Solutions Lending Library

The following is a list of films POS recommends and has available for lending. Contact us for lending procedures.

Also, we like to keep this list current so if you have recommendations, please let us know!
The End of Suburbia
Escape from Suburbia
Fresh
Peak Oil: Imposed by Nature
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Crude Impact
Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire
Richard Heinberg talk @ Plymouth State University
Richard Heinberg Peak Oil: How it Will Change Your Life
Richard Heinberg 23 April 08 talk @ BUHS
Out of Balance: ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change
The Myths of Biofuels

 
 

Earlier Projects

  • “Buy Local, Eat Local” Campaign: 2005-06, our 1st project began with over 1000 people making the above pledge; we then took out a full-page ad in the 30 May 06 edition of the Reformer with the names of everyone who had signed on.

  • Windham Localvores: grew out of the preceding campaign, 2006-08, most notable for sponsoring summer and winter localvore challenges where people committed to eating food grown no further than 100 miles from their homes.

  • Localvore Listserve: the “Localvore Bible,” operating since 2005, the list serve provides any member to communicate with others about questions or concerns they have, items they need or wish to donate, trade or barter, farmers who have offers, etc.; incredible amount of knowledge & expertise, generosity & kindness

  • Vermont Peak Oil Network: member from 2005-08, when VPON ended

  • A CSA in Every Town: 2006-07, perhaps overly ambitious, we were only successful with starting a CSA in Wilmington; we did meet with other farmers.

  • Brattleboro Food Co-op Eat Local Committee: a member until it ended, 2007-08.

  • Windham Energy Group (WEG): 2007-09, Post Oil brought together regularly a variety of energy knowledgeable people from around the county to discuss how we might help communities become more energy sustainable. Eventually becameWindham County Co-op Power.

  • Grafton & Saxtons River Climate Groups: helped start each and work with these 2 groups, 2006-09

  • 501c3 application approved by Washington, 2008

  • Seed Saving Group: brought interested parties together, 2009

  • Townshend Common Farmers Market: founded and ran for several years (2008-12) before turning it over to local people

  • Community & School Gardens Project: Post Oil has both initiated and run local community gardens, 2006-present, from early ones in Brattleboro (Upper Dummerston, SIT, & Academy School) to later ones in Bellows Falls (the YMCA, Stone Church, Saxton River Elementary & Bellows Falls High School) to providing financial support to Moore Court and Ledgewood community gardens.

  •  (Re)Learning to Feed Ourselves: beginning with a tomato canning workshiop in 2005, we have run 40 + workshops between 2005-14, teaching people how to garden, preserve, store, and cook local food.

  • No Gardener Left Behind Forum: annual Spring event, 2009-2012, with a wide variety of displays, speakers, and presentations on gardening.

  • Brattleboro Peak Oil Task Force: at Post Oil initiative, Brattleboro Select Board created a community Task force, 2007 that it then disbanded, 2008, after the group submitted its report.

  • Fit and Healthy Kids Coalition member, 2009, did a number of workshops and cooking classes in low-income areas.

  • YMCA Healthy Communities Coalition: member 2009-10

  • Elliot Street Community Conversation: sponsored monthly event, 2011-13 until we turned it over to Transition Brattleboro, where local residents came to talk about their concerns.

  • West River Community Conversation: sponsored monthly event, 2011-12 in effort to develop interest in sustainable communities in the greater Townshend-West Townshend/Newfane/Jamaica/Wardsboro area which, amongst other things, helped facilitate the transfer of POS Townshend Common Farmers Mkt to local control, created a children’s shelf at the Townshend Food shelf, & supported a Townshend community garden.

  • Building Sustainable Communities Monthly Forum: forerunner of Climate Café, 2007-09

  • No Idle Campaign/Curb Your Car:  collaborated with Brattleboro Energy Coordinator, 2007-08; led to no-idling signage in Brattleboro

  • Community Food Security Project (for which Post Oil received its first sizeable grant, $10,000, from the Vermont Community Foundation) launched in 2008-09 to make locally produced food accessible to everyone, that included (1) a regional Gleaning Partnership with Vermont Food Bank (realized 95,000 pounds of food in first 2 years; (2) the Market Basket Project  (aka, Neighborhood Market) that featured wholesale prices from socially-conscious farmers in 2 lower to moderate income neighborhoods that people accessed with their EBT (food stamp) benefits; (3) a Rapid Community Food Assessment in Brattleboro to assess food security needs (that led to the Market Basket Project; and initiating Great Falls Food Hub Project); and (4) a 2 acre farm, the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Initiative at the School for International Training that  provided much of its harvest to people of low income especially at Brattleboro Drop-In Center

  • Collaborated with the Amherst, MA group, RideBuzz,  in 2008, to bring a number of Brattleboro businesses together around this ride-sharing program

  • Recipient of Annual Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Award, 2010: first non-farm organization to receive this award, “In Recognition of Your Outstanding Team Effort to Build Sustainable, Collaborative, and Socially Just Communities.”

  • Windham Farm Bureau: member 2009-11, further relationship building with area farm community

  • iMatter Student Mothers Day Parade: brought together and collaborated with area high school and college students, May 2011,  for an expression of youth sentiment around climate change; march through Brattleboro, speeches and music at the Common.

  • Windham County Farm to School Program: 2010-14, largely WSESU school district though also involved with WCSU & WNESU. Promoting healthy school lunches, school gardens, food literacy curriculum & local farm visits. This subsequently became a part of Food Connects

  • Food Security Collaborative: workshops and community & school gardens in the greater Bellows Falls/Rockingham/Westminister/Saxtons River area, 2012-14; funded by a Ben & Jerry’s grant.

  • Great Falls Food Hub Project: 2009-12, a working collaborative with SEVCA and partners in Grafton County, New Hampshire, in an effort to realize a 3-tier food hub (processing, storage and transportation) that was finally realized as a 2-state food hub by what became Food Connects. 

  • Food Connects: a combination of Post Oil’s Farm to School program, Buying Club program in area schools, and the Neighborhood Market at Green Street School became an independent entity in 2014.

  • Climate Change and the Arts Project: in an effort to engage arts-connected people with climate change, 2014-15, POS initiated several projects including contracting local artists in works that expressed their view of climate change (showings at The Works & Hooker-Dunham), paintings on former oil drums about climate change by BUHS students (later displayed in school), and a climate revue by local singers, musicians, and actors at Hooker-Dunham.