about the expectation towards this presentation. So what I'm going to talk about, because it's a pretty big topic to start your WordPress maintenance business from the scratches, I'm not going to talk about some legal stuff because it might be different, the independence of the region, for example, in my country, it might be some stuff in your country, it might be different one. But I'm going to tell you about my experience of starting this project because unfortunately, there were two previous projects that failed and they helped me to learn some important stuff about how to start your project and to make it successful. So, let's start with the clicker. So, I'll start with the my name. The steps that you will see now aren't going in accordance to the development process, for example, you might start with another one, just I prepared my presentation with this one because it helped me to follow the logical structure of my steps for the presentation. So, the my name, how should the my name be? So, as Delayda said, the my name that I have chosen for my website is WPdandy. What does dandy mean? So, WP, all of you know it's WordPress, yes. What dandy means, for example. So, what we should consider while choosing a my name? First of all is, I think it's, of course, it's an advice to choose a comdomyname.comdomyname, sorry. And why to prioritize a comdomyname.comdomyname instead of these US and four, because they're all wonderful, but dandy is that nowadays users most of the time associate any kind of domain name with .com. For example, I have observed, just looked into a dashboard of my WordPress website, and I have observed that some of you already answered website and I suppose mostly because of these branding. For example, when you're looking at WPdandy, which association come into your mind, first of all, when you're going to Google? I mean, are you going to associate it with just wdandy.net, for example, where most of the time it will be .com. Most of the users, nine, it's already proved by some researchers that nine out of 10 users they will search your domain into the com domain name. One more thing, why we should choose .comdomyname instead of others to prioritize, let's say, like this, is because those domain are associated with spam.  Of course, we can, somebody might say to, okay, I'll do some SPFs, for example, and so on and so forth, and I will secure my, but once again, it works. So what else we should use is, of course, it's an advice is to use, for example, if you're going to start a business in WordPress, is to use WP because once again, many people associate WP with WordPress. So if you'll use prefix like WP in search engines, in search engines, most of the time people will, for example, they'll have to choose between a couple of domain names and the one will be your domain name in search results, so it must probably that people will click your domain name instead of the waters. It's a kind of a trick that will help you to get better results. What else is another advice is to create and appealing a member of the domain name. For example, when I was choosing the domain that I'm using now, it was pretty difficult. So I ended up with even because I had an idea how it should be because we are providing Montana services, I ended up even, it was such situation that I thought for a couple of reasons to name WP Nanny, like a baby sitter. So it's kind of tricky, but fortunately, I ended up with WP Dandy. And I suppose it is a kind of good advice for you to choose something that's a member of for people. And also it should be appealing, for example, if you are providing, let's say, Montana services, in this situation, it should show your user why they should choose your service already for the domain that you're using. So this is regarding the domain name. We are going to the next, it's hosting already. I suppose that most of you know a lot about hosting and which one would be a better choice for your website. So I thought the same, but I found some points that I could cover here. Some advice would be to choose a hosting that is located in the exact area with your clients. I think most of you will agree, first of all, there is some pros in using a hosting that is close to your clients, I mean future clients, for example, we are providing, we are orienting mostly on US clients so that we have chosen the domain in that area. Why it's a good choice, a good idea to choose a domain name, a hosting into the area. First of all, this website will load faster. Of course we could adjust our website and do a lot of customization in order to work, to make it work faster, but anyway, your website will load faster to the users, to your targeted users if you will host it into their region. And of course Google, Google uses their searching algorithms and one of them is the local businesses. So they see, I mean, Google sees the location of your website and they automatically think that it's suitable for the United States based, for some clients, for some. Of course it's not the only one that should be considered in ranking, but it is just one plus for your website. Another one is to offer highly reliable top-notch hosting. Of course there are different kinds of hostings and when we are starting our project, we mostly look because of some economic things, for example, like to save some money we might choose, let's say, not a very reliable hosting. It is not a good idea. It's better to pay a little bit more and to choose a reliable hosting instead of one that you'll pay less and as a result, for example, I had such a situation when I started a previous project and it was just a free hosting provider, it's like hosting, you're possibly some of you know, and I thought, okay, it's a good choice. For example, I'm going to host my website right here and it started and it was okay, it would load very okay for me, but when people started to go to the website, it would just shut down and so it would not work. Okay, the next question is theme and it's controversial because I wanted to name it design and theme. The idea is of course we can do whatever we want with our website, for example, if you have a lot of money, you can hire a designer, a developer, that would put all these together and create a custom theme. But once again, it's with the condition that you have a good amount of money to get started. What I would advise here is to use a multi-purpose theme instead of a developer one and here are two purposes why I would advise you to do this. Of course, the thing that you develop yourself as a developer might work, but it will need your time developing and in the situation that you are, let's say one or two person that's doing a lot of stuff and this kind of business is pretty difficult because alongside with your website, you have to support many other websites so you need more and more resources. So in case you will choose a ready-made multi-purpose theme, for example, you can adjust it by using Chelt theme for your website theme and in this situation, all the updates will be practically for free for you and they will be secured and so on and so forth.  Another advice here would be to choose an optimizable theme because I'm going to talk and then next slide, what does it mean exactly? Yeah, as I said, if you decide to choose pre-made multi-purpose theme, you have to look into the theme and to see if it works really, it is optimizable, of course. So speed, speed of your website, it's also very important because we know that there are a couple of points in Google search algorithm that are very sensible for the speed of your website. Somebody mentioned today about A&P of the website. I don't think it's an option for business until now because it is a very, very cut version of what your website can provide. But a good optimization is a must for every business that starts on the website. Amazon, for example, has some statistics that tell us that around 20% of the clients will leave your website with each passing second that your website will load. For example, let's say you have 100%, you load, for example, two seconds and so if somebody will wait for three seconds, they will leave and so on, so forth. So after six seconds, you have almost no clients and your website, I'm sorry, for God. How we can choose which theme to use, of course, I mentioned when I sent this presentation that it's mostly for those who want the start of business but now I see a lot of developers. So some of you might not agree with me because you know your job, you can do even better but this is for those who don't want to spend a lot of time entining their theme and doing stuff like this but instead they want to spend their time for something else. So how we can see if our theme is optimizable, for example, we can run it through the speed checker, for example, like page speed insights that is using Lighthouse and if it doesn't help, for example, because sometimes it doesn't see those wrong stuff that happens with your website, so GTmetrics might help you. So even those well-made theme needs some optimization because when you enter, let's say, a demo theme, for example, and you're looking into the theme, it looks pretty good so you are going through this checker and you see it's around 90% in Google page speed, for example, and say, okay, that's my theme but you can get even better, for example, if you optimize your theme. So yeah, there are some different type of practices in this situation so you can optimize the entire code or you can use some plugins that are free of charge in WordPress repository. For example, I personally like, I'm using just a single plugin for this purposes, it's auto-optimize and some code into HTTP access files so it helps me to get some good results, around 90% for the distal version in Google page speed. Of course, database optimization, at the very beginning it will work for you but with time as your company works, your website, I have four or 50 more minutes. Okay, thank you very much. Oh, okay, so, and the last version of the PHP, it also very helpful. Why I'm talking about it is because, yeah, you want your website to get high-intensity searchers and engine results so it might help you. The security, of course, security also matters very much so you have, let's make an assumption that you have started your website or business website so, and you might observe that some people might try penetrating your website. So, of course, there are a lot of practices how to secure website and here are just some of them because there is no 100% proof against hacking nowadays. I also, okay, let's go from top to down. So, using HTTPS encrypted connection is helpful. It is even more effective when you receive payments on your website, for example. I have observed that some businesses in my field like in the tennis, for example, some of you might know this website like WP Curve, for example, there are some more. So, they are not using just a couple of forms that they get the information from the clients and they don't use payment but in case you'll be using payment right on your website, for example, there's a good plugin that might work in this situation is called Projectopia that it helps you to get the project task to communicate with your clients right on your website and even payment might go for your website. So, this situation encrypted connection will be very helpful. So, to keep your WordPress core plugins theme up to date, it's an obvious point, but yeah, we have to keep it secured. Antivirus plugin, some personal I use, I don't remember exactly, we have some emotions, but it's a good use in Antivirus, even though it's not very practical, so you will have to do most of the checking by yourself, but yeah, it might be helpful. To hide your authenticational pages, mostly once again for the security reasons because yeah, if this is a homemade hacker, so they might have entered what we were saying just for, and also there's a problem with Google Dorks, for example, I have learned about this topic for some time ago and I observed that even my website would be a potential victim of the hackers just introducing in Google just these two commas and WP admin and they would find that it's WordPress website. Used to factor in authentication, mostly for the admin panel, how then possible information regarding the CMS. Actually, I think it's pretty easy to do in this situation, so you won't need to spend a lot of time by using a child theme. We'll have no information about the website. Of course you can dig deeper and find the information, but once again it might be helpful at least for the first time. And run penetration testing, possibly some of you are using this kind of software like WP scan on Cali Linux. For example, each time I update my website, I'm running it through the WP scan in order to see if it doesn't have some vulnerabilities. SEO, okay. I'm not very good at SEO, but there is some because once again, I have started on my own and I can't afford now paying for a good SEO expert. So I have to do, I have to study a lot of stuff on my own. And so for already half a year, I am studying very hard this topic. And what I can advise you here is a good American SEO expert like Neil Patel. I don't know if you've ever heard about him. He doesn't tell 100% what you have to do, but it's pretty, pretty good, at least to know all that stuff. So in terms of SEO, we know those who are good in SEO will agree with me. We have two stages in working with SEO. It's on-page SEO and off-page SEO. And some advices, once again, this is not a to-do list, just a couple of advices from what I observed. First of all, for on-page SEO, what we have to do. We have to run, un-implement, and initial on-page SEO audit. Can we do it on our own? I think just searching for some information on Google, we can do it on ourselves. Another advice would be to perform an Dev keyword competitor research. Of course, some of you might say, for example, okay, you need a lot of time, a lot of money, for example, to pay some tools like, I don't know, Azure F, for example, or Sambrush. Once again, for a very tight budget, you might use Nail Patels SEO tool that is called Ubersuggest. It's up-plutiful-free, and even though it doesn't give you 100% accurate results, but it at least helps you in a couple of things to work with. Of course, identify and contract an expert, oh, I'm sorry, put together a list of prior keywords. So my mistake in my previous project was that I have put myself the pre-work keywords, I have done some articles, and I would expect to get results, but it doesn't work this way. So my advice would be to choose those keywords that you want to rank for, and after that, you can unleash the creativity of your copywriter. So don't, I don't know, let's ask them to just use these keywords in that solve, for example. Just try to limit the area, for example, if it's WordPress, to be WordPress, and identify and contract an expert native speaker SEO copywriter. Some devices would be here when you are contracting this kind of personal is to choose a copywriter that possess the language of the region that you are targeting. For example, I have worked with some British copywriters with some, even with some Indians, because I would think at the very beginning, the lower price is better, but after that I understand that it doesn't work this way. So you have to pay at least an average price in order to get some results that might be useful for you, because paying less doesn't mean that you'll get, because if it would be this way, everyone would be an expert SEO copywriter. So that from my experience, I found an average price, and I'm contracting now only American copywriters, because once again, I'm orienting on American market, and I can say that it works. I have observed that those articles that were written by British copywriters, even though it's the same language as English, but most of the future clients would come to my website with the British ones and some Indians. So as I'm not going to cover this market, so I decided to switch to American copywriter. So now I use just these ones. And have your asset content published, of course, this is already for the next one, but okay, so some off page SEO is to identify a website that are closely related to your niche in order to do some link building. Of course, it's a very rich topic to discuss about, but what I would suggest you to use the same language, the website that have the same language like American English for your website, because once again, you will narrow the targeted audience of your website, and Google somehow also sees the thing, so it gives you some more juice. Contract their own guests, by the way, there's a way how we can build a good link building strategies by using guest posting. I think almost of you know about this, so I'm not going to talk very much about this, but once again, try to choose only the best quality websites. For example, some websites have some trash articles you don't need, even though they will give you a link, but you don't need this kind of, get a guest spot published, have your back link, and repeat it once again, so time by time, don't work it on 10 articles, try to do the best of your own to get the best results, the best article, the best link. So the next one is support channels. Once again, when we are providing support channels, I observed that some of the competitors in the same field, they have some poor channels, communication channels, for example, some of them provide like messenger, for example, some of them provide the contact form, and so on and so forth. First of all, from the point of view of trust, Americans were like say, what are European countries? They won't trust you until you don't have at least a phone number in their country, for example. As I mentioned, I am orienting on American marketing, so I have a phone number. How to do this? I personally use an SIP, I don't know if I pronounced it correctly, SIP Tolfany, until I won't find some guys that I will be able to deal with them because we are working with a company that, but we need to find an agreement, for example, which project they take for themselves, which project are we going to give to them in order to do this kind of business. So, and another advice would be to use a project management panel. So, optimization is very important. If you are going to use, I don't know, a contact form, it's just zero optimization. So, contact management, sorry, project management panel would be very useful for you in order to optimize. Of course, you can also use a CRM, for example, to do some more optimization. And as I mentioned previously, it uses a US phone number. It also increases the level of trustability to your website. And that's all, because I don't have more time. So, in case you have some questions, so I'd be glad to answer your question. Once again, it's just what I observed. It helped me to get those results. So, it might be a lot of even more points that might be useful in this session, but at this point, this is what I would like to share with you. Thank you very much. Thank you for, first of all, thank you for your speech. And I have a small question about, Google have now new domain area like .dev. And what do you think about use this for development of WordPress? For block or another? Do you know, yes? .dev, like instiat.com? No, I've never heard about this. Possibly it's my mistake. Never heard about this, but the idea, if I would choose another type of domain name for this, oops. Actually, I thought that I might use also AO, because I thought my project would be something very innovative. But I pretty quickly understood that there are a lot of companies that do the same stuff. So, all I have to do is to keep real, for example, let's say like this, and to do the job that most of the people do, but to do is better, for example. I don't know, for example, if you enter some of the competitor's website, there are a lot, for example, just introducing Google WordPress, Mantanis, and you will see a lot of competitors that do the same stuff. But their websites are loading very slow. I suppose it's kind of their mistake, so not making them a lot faster. But about what you answered, what your question was, I wouldn't choose another domain instead of this. Once again, there are some reasons why we have to stick with com domain name. And of course, if your project is very innovative and you're providing something that only your project can do, it's IO, for example. It's also very trusted a domain name. But mostly when I answered a website, I choose to com.com domain and after that they move to IO if I think that it might be something innovative. Thank you very much for your question. Thank you very much for your question. Once again, it's not a problem, it's just that I have to prepare everything in English. Greetings. Thank you for the interesting report. I don't have any more questions about how to start and what to do next. I'm just a developer who, including a lot of people and for a long time I support clients, I develop their projects further. I was also thinking about choosing projects that exist outside of support. And from experience, how to properly balance what a certain number of hours for which a client pays, right? But even to solve, as it would seem, simple problems, you might need a lot of time to deal with the project with code. How do you solve this in the team? Well, first of all, on this question, I will answer a little more in a short time, right? Keep it simple, right? Once again, what I mean here. First of all, we have a list of services provided. For example, if there is a need for coding, it will already be separate, right? But the basis is what is there, it is there, for example, update, all that. Of course, I, for example, insist that it should be done not automatically. For example, there are such good programs, resources that allow to do all this automatically.  Well, it's automatic, it can be done by any, right? But if you start to make mistakes after you have updated 10 sites on the same button, then you shouldn't do it again, it's not good. How do I do it? In fact, it turns out that I'm doing it so far, right? Well, again, it's mirroring, I don't put it right away, we have updated the engine, we have updated the topic, we have updated the plugin, there are a lot of mistakes, everything is like that. Again, it is done separately, in a separate service, these backups are also created, which we store them for ourselves, right? Then, over time, we delete them, of course, there is thanks to this GDPR, there are a lot of such news from our friends, we say that we will do this backup, they will support such a time, they will update it regularly, everything is like that. What else? I live very carefully, everything needs to be done, what else can be added here? Well, if I understood correctly, it turns out that in this kind of tariff plan in support, a certain task and everything that is already going on top, some more complex things that need to be evaluated as a separate task, they just go as before work. Well, yes, usually, for example, the basic package does not include these additional work, there is design, VR software, there is the second, the middle one, it already includes half an hour, about an hour, but on the other hand, there are orders for more complex tasks, although we have a guy who works there, he works for several companies, and he does not have much time there, but we are trying to help the client here again. Thank you. Thank you. Another question? Thank you for the report. Thank you for the report. I want to ask what are your favorite topics, what templates do you use? Well, my favorite template is the template from A-Themes and the main template from A-Themes, I noticed that they are basically not... Of course, these are basic versions, there are already more advanced versions, they also start with such questions, more scripts, and so on, it needs to be implemented somehow, and everyone understands what to do after that there is optimization, but once again I answer your question about A-Themes. Of course, there are other topics that I also point out on the website, which I think they... there is a blog section, a girl writes these articles, which she describes. Well, I think A-Themes, of course, there are other topics that I can't say more than those that I mentioned. There is also Helio, I will say for sure, a company, but it is a very well optimized template, which... Yes. Thank you.


Good morning. This is the Senate Agricultural Committee. It's Friday morning, January 13th, and I hope everybody had a good trip in this morning, kind of nasty out there, but I see everyone's here, so that's great. And this morning, first on our schedule, which you should all have, is where we have some folks from Vermont. The food situation and the committee is very interested in promoting our sustainability here in Vermont of supplying food for our own citizens. And so it's, I know you folks do a lot of distribution of foods, so it's great to have you with us. So we'll hear from Kerry and then John, the director will be in, I don't know, he's coming just later. Yeah, so he'll be coming along. And so to get started, we'll introduce ourselves and put a name with the face. Yep, I'm Brian Collamore, a senator from Rutland. I'm Bobby Stout from Orleans County, do four towns in Caledonia County. So you can see we go the whole length of the state and we're very interested in helping our citizens have adequate supply of good, wholesome, fresh food. So Kerry, welcome, and we'll probably have questions for you. We're kind of a loose committee. Mr. Chair, can I ask, you know, we just kind of blend in and get our questions answered. So welcome and the floor is yours. Great, thank you so much.  And for the record, my name is Kerry Steyler, and I'm the government and public affairs officer for the Vermont Food Bank. And I am coming here from Linden, almost in your district. So I put together just a really brief slideshow that's an overview of the food bank. One of the things that we realized, even though we're a relatively old organization that's been doing work in Vermont for a long time when we travel the whole state, is that we do a lot of different things. And it helps to sort of set a baseline so everybody has a similar perspective on what it is that we're doing. So I'll start with that. Please feel free to interrupt me. If you have questions, I'm also a very informal presenter.  That should work for me in this room. Linden, you'll have to post a disabled participant's share and you'll have to give me the ability to share my screen. And some of what you'll see in this presentation is in the handouts that you have as well. So. Recording in progress. I think I got the wrong button. There you go. All I see is the date, Friday, January 13th. So you folks, do you distribute each week statewide? Yeah. So I'll just start without the slideshow because I think that's where we're at. It's great. So the food banks mission is much more broad than simply distributing food, but that is a lot of what we do. So our mission is to gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships so that no one in Vermont will go hungry, really with that goal of addressing hunger in all 14 counties in as many communities as we can reach. And we're primarily a food distribution organization, like you asked, but we do do some other work to help address food security in other ways. And I'll just touch on those. But really, the thing that is most relevant to this committee is that distribution, the food procurement and distribution. And we do that mostly through a network of about 320 networking community partner organizations. Those are your traditional food shelves and food pantries, community meal sites, use our food to prepare their meals, senior centers, afterschool programs. And we have a lot of partnerships with schools and hospitals. And those involve more direct distribution. So you do go to the hospitals and schools, all the institutions? Not all of them know. I think we're partnering currently with 11 hospitals and I believe 36 schools. But that one, I'm not 100% certain I can find that information for you. In schools, we do a few different programs, but the major programs are produce distribution programs that are veggie Van Gogh or a produce drop and go event through school systems. And then we operate a backpack program that provides food to children over the weekend who rely on on school meals for their food and don't have enough access to food at home. And I'm just going to lay a little groundwork. Are we online? That's okay. I'll just keep rolling without it. So I'm just going to like a little groundwork for hunger in the state of Vermont that is what we do is primarily to address hunger and food insecurity across the state. And in the House committee, I got some questions about the difference between hunger and food insecurity. Food insecurity is really the data term that helps us measure how many people in Vermont have not had access to the types of food they want and need, the amount of food they want and need, have skipped meals, have made choices that are not as nutritious quality food that they would like to eat. So it's kind of a very broad data term. Hunger is really that individual personal experience of not having enough food or being hungry. And I think that's something that all of us can identify with and is happening broadly across the state. So right now we're in a little bit of a dramatic moment. I would call it in the past 12 months, two in five people, which is roughly 40% of people in Vermont surveyed, identified that they had experienced food insecurity. So had not had enough food or the types of food that they preferred or needed to eat for their diet. And prior to the pandemic, that rate was about 9.6%. So we've seen this sort of ebb and flow over the course of the past two and a half, three years, where that number has gone up and down. But a lot of programs were available to folks to access additional food or additional financial resources, whether it was the child tax credit or rental assistance or a whole host of other programs that the federal and state government were able to help people through really the height of that crisis. As we move into this recovery phase, a lot of the folks who were impacted by food insecurity are folks on the lower income spectrum. And so it takes them a longer time to recover. We know that because the last time we had a real bump in food insecurity was during the Great Recession in 2008. And so there we went from a sort of nine-ish percent food insecurity rate in 2007 up to about 14%. And it took about 10 years for Vermont to recover from that crisis for food insecurity rates to go back down to that 9%. This is a much more dramatic increase than we're seeing. And we fully expect this will take years for Vermont to recover from as far as making sure that folks who could get it. Even with all that we've done and the feds have done, we instituted the universal school meals program. That hasn't slowed or lowered these numbers much. Well, you know, I think what that did was keep the numbers where they're at. Right? It did actually impact folks. So it held it. It held it. And now as we sort of move into a new phase of normal where people are sort of, you know, the assumption is we've recovered. But I think a lot of people have done that. Right. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. We've entered this real economic crisis. So sort of an on-the-ground look at your work. So you're veggie going to go in my community, right? What are the other areas where you might be in a community? Because I've heard incredible things about veggie ban go. I've heard people will go and just, it's really interesting to me because it can be such a stigma, you know? But people, I'm finding that might be breaking down a little bit. You know, it's just interesting because I am hearing the veggie ban. I keep hearing from different folks that they're going to the ban. They're going there. They're picking stuff up. They're sharing it with their friends, you know? So they're getting a bunch of things and then passing it along to people. Yeah. Which is great. And so I'm just wondering where else would you be in a community in terms of a food bank? Yeah. So Senator, I can't get you to name something really important. I don't want to miss that signal piece. So make sure I come back to that. But logistically speaking, our network partners are the community hubs for food access, whether that's meal sites, senior centers, food pantries. Like the meals on meals, do you connect with it all? We do often connect with meals on meals programs and they utilize the food that we distribute to repair the meals that they're making. So it helps with the efficiency of the cost for food preparation and programs like that. But you know, like a small food pantry in a town that's open one or two days a week. That they're often getting most of their food from us.  So if you have anything to add, we're just very grateful. Yeah, please don't hesitate to hop in because, you know, food pantries like the one in Jericho order from our system and our truck brings it to their site and delivers that food. We also offer grants to our network partners and that's a really important piece of it, particularly for Vermont agriculture. One of the grant programs that we've been able to really take advantage of or offer for networks so they can take advantage of is our Vermatres feeding, Vermatres grant program. And that food program is essentially, the goal of that is to purchase Vermont farm products from Vermont farms at market rates and distribute those to people who need to access the shareable food system. So whether it's through Veggie Van Gogh, through our network partners, through some of these produce drop and go programs, you know, we're really trying to make sure that there are multiple distribution points. But as an organization, we can't do all that work on the ground alone, nor do we want to. Those community partners really know the folks in their community and can make sure that they're doing the right outreach to get people in the door, that they're offering the types of food that people need and want, that their hours work for the people who live and work in that community. And so it really, I'm here as an organization, but what we really represent is this broad network of folks across the state who are working really hard to get that food into communities. Could you tell us, how does the farmer, do they bring the food to your warehouse? How does that... So there's really two ways that work. Yeah, there's two ways that work. So we as an organization operate three warehouses, one in Rattleboro, one in Rutland and one in Berry. And those are big warehouses with like loading docked truck bays and large facilities where we're using fork trucks. So the farmers that we work with to buy and bulk for those facilities are large farms who can deliver pallet-sized loads. We were with a farm in Williamstown who brings us pallets of potatoes, and those go into our warehouses and then get distributed out either via the vegan goes or we do produce pickup events regularly with our network partners where we'll show up in a parking lot and they all come to the truck and bring the produce that they want back to their site.  The other way that we do that work is that we offer grants to our partners where they can get up to $2,500 per grant, you know, they're using the grants. Then they use that money to purchase directly from farms in their community. So we're building that relationship between our local network partners, our food shelves, our food pantries, and local farms. And people love that because they go into their food shelf or food pantry and they see, you know, what Dan grew down the road and they know his farm name and they know his, you know, lettuce and his produce and they're all of our network is doing that in different ways. Some of them are purchasing CSA shares that come in on a weekly basis and people can come and shop with CSA shares. Some of them purchase CSA shares on behalf of families and the families go and pick that up from the farm. Sometimes they're ordering, there was a farm in Barton that the Northeast Kingdom Community Action contracted with and bought beef from.  And so they had this agreement with this farm that every X number of weeks they would come and pick up beef from them. So it really, those grants really put the flexibility in the hands of our network partners and our farmers to figure out how to work together to make sure the people who can afford that food are able to act. Are those federal grants? They are not. No, they are private grants through the Vermont Food Bank. Okay. Yep, yep. And we try to make the application process and eat as easy and smooth as possible so that it isn't a burden on our network to get those funds to do that Do you have any idea how much or how many pounds of Vermont products you I don't but I can tell you the dollar amount that we that we were able to inject into the Vermont economy was 2.4 million dollars last year and that is farms. That is not any sort of economic multiplier that is direct dollars that the Vermont Food Bank spent on Vermont for our purchases. So that's good. Yeah, but we probably eat millions of dollars. So there's room there to grow. There is and I will say you know over the course of the year. You're pun intended. Pun intended. This is a place for it. I would say over the past few years we have had to do much more food purchasing than our system you know sort of was traditionally built for. Food banks are built to receive donated food and redistribute that food. The need over the past several years has been growing at such a rate that we have been purchasing much more food. And this is where I may point to the handout that I sent you or I handed you the second page. Oh, YouTube can see this second page. You know there are a few different federal programs listed on here. The top program in that middle bar on the second page is called TFAP and that's the emergency food access program. And that's a federal food program that the state of Vermont administers in the Vermont Food Bank works together with the agency of education. And that is a huge source of food for us in our network. It provides what's essentially USDA commodity food that goes out into our network and can either be used at those meal sites to prepare food or can be you know there for folks to pick up. And it is no longer like the old-fashioned commodity cheese and like a wave brick that used to happen you know a few years back. The USDA has started repackaging that food it looks like shelf brands. It is sort of like an off name you know like this is still cheaper or still cheap. There's lots of other things. There's lots of other food. And it really varies depending on what the USDA contracts with these huge farms around the country for us. And so that is one source that has been really readily available during the pandemic and the past year the amount of food available to us through that program has declined by 40%. We expect that decline to continue. There may be some ebbs and flows in available food based on what the USDA chooses to do and kind of funded Congress gives to the USDA for that program. Yeah because they I mean they report to us all we're buying all this trying to you know keep the market somewhat tight and then you do read about the millions of pounds of butter that they have stored. It's a little bit of an opaque system I will agree with you. So the food shelves in my area but a lot asked for from private donations is stuff like toilet paper and those. And what's never been really clear to me I've been clear there's lots of help from different all sorts of different places for the basic food items and the food types. Is there any avenues for those things like toilet paper in basic I'm trying to wonder why those are the things they they tell us bring those. There are a couple of reasons for that. One of them is that we do carry some non food items but not many. So that is broadly a need. The other reason is that SNAP benefits so what we call three squares Vermont here doesn't cover those items and so people are having to use their own money to purchase those and if they don't need to use their money to purchase those they can buy more. Right so that I just bring up the toilet paper. I can't. There are necessities that people require to live their lives that you know that they need to get and sometimes that is hard. We have started to try to sort of offer some more good items but it's very different process. That's helpful thank you. Another question you know we're we're having a tremendous time with our waste system you know filling up and you have to keep building more and people are upset about the landfills and what we've heard and you know it's just stores nothing but stores will take out product that you know maybe the dates run out on and you know Walmart is a very community oriented type group and do they ever donate outdated or you know stuff foods things to the food bank that really are still good but they're they're getting near their time limit? Walmart specifically is when I'm not sure about we have existing partnerships. Oh great John is a really good one answer question. We do have existing partnerships. Yeah he can set up there with you. Bring a chair. We have existing partnerships with a number of retailers who we do receive food from donated food that is closed dated or you know or slightly outdated but still good to eat. Is Walmart one of our partners who we get food donations from? I'm not sure. Yes so there's full record John sales.  Irene run her sitting in north center. Brian Callamore from Rutland. Brian. Brian can't be in Bennington County. I'll reach west and then we'll probably start from Moreland so welcome. Thank you thank you I apologize for not having been able to be here at nine. You know that's fine now. We have we do do have a relationship with Walmart and do store pickups at Walmart's that's the relationships with large chains like Walmart, Hannaford, Shaw's are managed through our relationship with Feeding America which is our national organization. So we have we have relationships all those stores and we actually have relationships with just about every grocery store in Vermont where we do store pickups. Oftentimes it's the local food shelf that will you know we train them and give them the equipment so they can follow the food safety regulations and then they do recording stops there. Okay so you must handle I mean if we can get that food up and get it out to people that isn't going to the landfills and so that's good. Yeah I can confidently say we are the largest food rescue organization in the state keeping food out of landfills. Yeah that's good. Yeah that's right. Do you do anything I'm just thinking of this single parent not a lot of time to prepare things. Do you do any kind of you know prepared stuff or even instead of just a bag of carrots that's kind of already ready to go anything like that. I know it's hard but I'm just thinking of the single mom and the single dad you know coming home from work and yeah. So the food bank itself doesn't yeah we don't do prepared things. We don't process you know there was we don't process we've we've worked on projects around that we do get some food that that is ready to eat our meals you know usually you know it's the you know like frozen meals or frozen meals or the meal kits where you you know you just add some ground beef and turns into a meal we do get those and those are available at food shelves you know and you know there was for the last couple of years Vermont everyone eats which was working with restaurants you know kind of a different model which was very popular yeah and so we've also had partnerships to explore light processing and preparing meals for a number of years five or six years we were working with the Center for the Ag economy in Hartwick to figure out how to do that light processing so instead of you know a five pound bag of carrots they're you know small carrots or they're they're coined and blanched and frozen so you just eat them up and eat them the the challenge is that it's just really expensive yeah and the the issue is actually labor labor you can't use volunteer labor because it's it's specific machinery and you have to be trained on it and to have people who are you know it just was too complex yeah okay we also did projects with them to create prepared meals we did a macaroni cheese pilot which was a little you know a tin of cooked macaroni cheese and just heat it up again it was very popular but getting the ingredients and manufacturing process at a price point that made sense just you know one way that we have had success doing that yeah I just want to add the food bank in Maine the shepherd food bank there's also one food bank in Maine actually has purchased the processing plant and they're doing a project with broccoli they grow a lot of broccoli in Maine where they're they're cutting the florets and blanching them and then working with Wyman's the blueberry company and using their facility out of season to freeze it and it's going to be a product that will be available in hanaford um and if you purchase it it's it's going to the the proceeds for the sales informant will come to the food bank but that they'll also have that available at the sale you know at their cost to us so we can purchase that from them and hopefully they're hoping to expand other products um but they're starting broccoli that's true but that's going to be on limited basis it's an off-season type operation that will work when the blueberries are right and that the when the broccoli is coming right is when that they're not using the freezing capacity of the blueberry plant so they're hoping to add some other other crops maybe do some some processing too and they're very open in fact I've reached out through networks to Vermont growers because they're interested in getting more product in and they're interested in this being a regional effort so we don't necessarily have to do it um we can join in with folks in Maine so there is some ability through Salvation Farm to do some um and I know there's some connections but can you describe a little sure um yeah Teresa Snow who runs Salvation Farms she actually starred in Salvation Farms and then became part of the food bank and it was part of the food bank for about five years um and then she went back out by herself because it's a little bit different mission a bit different vision um one when Salvation Farms had their their light processing facility in in Winooski yeah we were their number one client right so we purchased most of what um they produced again it was it was economics even though Salvation Farms was running as a job training program getting folks coming in doing the light processing and packing um it just wasn't sustainable over the long run so the so what was in Winooski has and and Salvation Farms is looking it is still looking for other opportunities you know I know they've worked with corrections in the past um and just looking for ways to to take that agricultural surplus get it light processed so that it can come through our network more easily I wasn't aware that the Winooski piece it yeah it's been a couple of years since they they closed down that facility so John I don't think would remember but I have taken a tour of the Rutland facility yes um and when Terry was mentioning where the other two warehouses are so Barry Brattleboro and Rutland what about Chittenden County I was kind of surprised that there isn't something where 65 percent of the people live in Vermont I smile because we've been trying for at least 10 years to find a place um to have a physical okay it's just really really difficult to find the appropriate facility in the right place um we've we've been partnering actually there's a long term project that we've been working on with feeding Chittenden and the intervail and the intervail we've done some planning around it the intervail would really like to build a processing facility right there on their site and there's land available it's a brown field so that's an issue but but we've we've we've actually done a phase one assessment we're talking to the city of Burlington we're talking to Senator Sanders office about you know trying to start finding some money for that but it would be a project that would combine you know the food bank feeding Chittenden and and the intervail but it's just been really really challenging the state of Vermont likes to buy high and sell wall let us know when you're ready well I mean I'm wondering if there are any buildings that the state owns up there in Chittenden County that you know they sell it to you at your price I'm sure and and you know that could be utilized in the other outfit is you know IBM used to be there but now it's well they you know I've heard that they have vacant buildings at their place and and you would think that an outfit like those folks could use tax credits or something to where they could basically donate the the facility to you folks but then get the tax credits on the on the donation and I don't if you've worked you have work we have and we are we have those conversations we actually were just they allowed us to park one of our vehicles because we have a bunch of people in Chittenden County yeah yeah actually we have several we have several people who were kind of out of the intervail space already but we were we were parking one of our company vehicles at Global Foundries and I'm sure you have but if you work for GVIC because they do have the mapping of the whole region what there is available so yeah it's just our our needs are pretty specific yeah you're on institutions yeah you could work for state no they'll give away to somebody before we go too far I actually can we say back to Senator Cambian you had asked me about stigma and I have not covered that and I want to make sure we we cover that before we find a building so we can see more um but you had said how bad he didn't go is people love it because it's a little stigma and and I I think one of the things that that pandemic did was that it made those drive-through food distribution events really common and really normalize them they were not only in the news they were you know locations all over the state people were encouraged to go and pick up the food they need you know if and want if they if they need it and really weren't a lot of questions to answer and that's how we've continued to operate our veggie vangos they need to ask what questions were asked you said not many yeah how many people are in your household okay okay how many households and how many households are you picking up for and that's it that's it not how much money do you think what's your last name give us your security number food shelf does that do they um there are certain other words okay some food shelves do um how people sign a self affidavit to receive certain foods and it's that the USDA foods are quiet it's that the requirements yeah some local food shelves also um well restricted to residents of certain towns so their town and surrounding towns so they'll ask for some sort of identification and they keep you on file or you can only visit a certain number of times a week or a month so those veggie vango events people drive through they open their trunk volunteers load who have you know packed these boxes and bags load them into the trunk you know for the three households they're picking up for they give them three households worth of food and they say thanks and have a great day so that stigma keys you know if you're no one's telling anyone their name you don't necessarily have to approve your residency there's really it is much easier for people to feel comfortable the other piece that we've heard from people that even go is that they really love receiving local produce because they know it's helping farms right so it's that circular gift back where they know that you know even though they're they're in need of assistance someone is being helped in the process of it and that is sort of um something that that even folks who need for assistance really appreciate I'm sure that that Carrie has mentioned our our I don't see the hand out there the food banks three million dollar base funding request and really what what that that three million dollars will do is allow us to purchase as much local food as we possibly can last year the food bank purchased 2.4 million dollars in local food definitely not yeah and you know we're talking a lot about local farms and people receiving that and doing processing and having facilities that we can we can really maximize the use of the agricultural resources in Vermont and that's really that's the the purpose of that base funding request is to be able to do that in a consistent way our purchase food has increased pretty dramatically since COVID began and what about farmers I mean you know this time of year they can't be growing a whole lot so what about having that product year-round is there should we be looking at a way to enhance you know freezing and packaging uh to allow farmers to have food for you to distribute year-round is there is there a bad time of the year when you run low on certain things that people you know nourishing foods that people should have but we don't can't grow it so definitely you know the seasonality issue you know we're not getting locally grown you know but you know greens and things during this time of year we do year-round so we for when we purchase from local farms we forward contract right so so this time of year will actually probably already been done that we've signed contracts with farmers for next year a lot of those are year-round contracts because we're still getting storage crops so we're still getting you know the the hard five the squashes the onions potatoes carrots yeah beads you know we work with deep root co-op so we're getting those constantly you know the folks that the big big producers like maza and paul harlow you know they're all growing screens yeah they and on they're they're all growing storage crops and so we're getting those year-round we also can get the the seasonal crops from other places when they're not being grown in Vermont but you know like what main's doing if there were the capacity to economically likely process and freeze or somehow some you know can Vermont products then you know we're always on the market close to a few days ago they were showing the drought in california and you know there's cracks that wide in their fields because there is no water and the other so you know it's questionable how many more years we're going to be able to rely on on them growing our food and the other issue is you know Vermont we're trying to be as green as possible and cut as much carbon as we can and we're trucking that product from the west coast to the east coast and well I don't know if you end up having to pay the trucking but it's very expensive with fuel at five dollars or better a gallon and you know we're wasting or we're spending a lot of money I wouldn't say we're wasting it because we're getting their food but we're spending a lot of money to get that food shipped to to the east coast and and you know we have great growing ground here in Vermont especially along the the river bottom lands and in the you know quite a few members in the legislature would like to try to get us to growing as much of our produce and and right here at home processing it and having it available to our people so you know we get rid of the carbon we get rid of the worrying about whether they're going to get water from some place and and it's just crazy to truck product 35 hundred miles to feed our people we're very we do pay trucking transportation so we're very aware of that you know we also we have a national network so we're working with feeding America and and they help we have transportation subsidies we can we sort of broker food within 200 food banks across the country so you know there's you know extra oranges in Florida or you know cherries in Michigan you know we figure out how to get them here we also here in Vermont because of transportation costs and just relationships a lot of the non or most of the non Vermont produce that we distribute comes from western harvest in Quebec yes how they have worse winners than we do yeah they have a lot of greenhouse growing they're huge they distribute all up and down the east coast we buy a lot of seconds from them and they'll deliver us mixed loads mixed tractor trailer loads which is unusual for large producers so and you know it's the greenhouse gas footprint is much smaller I mean stuff come down from Quebec them from Florida or Texas or California no that's that's good yeah and where in Quebec does that where do they come from do they grow I think they have huge operations a hundred acres yeah or no thousands and thousands hundreds of acres I think of greenhouses alone yeah oh yeah you you know I live around the border but I haven't been going to Montreal lately at all but you go along in Ottawa 10 and you see huge fields and and green you do see the green on the right for you that was all going into Montreal or over to Toronto or something but you folks get food and you know the the food that we purchase again you know the the appropriation the funding request the food we purchase through western harvest if we buy seconds um it's actually about half the cost of buying local locally grown from produce but we make a commitment as a new bank to buy as much locally grown food as we can because it's important to Vermont and it's important to the people that we're serving that they're getting food that's grown here in Vermont and creating that connection between the food grown here their health that you know it's more nutritious it's more nutrient dense and fresher yeah and where you know I look at it is the food bank by by distributing local food we're actually creating new customers for local farmers because the people that are coming to food distributions are going to a food sale they're still buying food and and when they have the opportunity to to know that local food is tastes better and looks better and lasts longer then they're willing to spend a little bit more in the grocery store to purchase that also and that their kids will like it I think that's one of the big things so um so besides the budget items now do you know if the governor included that in in his budget or is this something that we don't know I did you know in August have a conversation with uh Commissioner Gresham and his deputy that we presented all the information to them he told me he would talk to the governor about it and I followed up with Adam and and you know they don't tell they don't tell no as you know so so we're waiting for the governor's budget address also and for the budget to come out but we have made that request yeah well it's good to know that because you know if he only went partway two of us in here also sit on appropriations so you know ag gets used if I can convince him we get along pretty well one of the handouts that's in front of you is the detail request governor's office and it has um both information about why we need that funding but information about how we'll spend that funding and like John said you know primarily to purchase from yep and then the cost to distribute well we I think in the past we've used the food bank pretty well like my memory certainly right yes yes the last few years well and and you folks know do a good job getting their food out to our citizens and so I mean it's a good working relationship I think all the way around yeah I can't with especially the two appropriations members here I can't miss the opportunity to to say again that I know that there are going to be some ARCA funds that are appropriated and not spent and uh there is a deadline on that and the food bank is the ultimate in shelf ready projects we can get food money out the door helping Vermonters very quickly so keep that in mind do we need a processing place of our own here in some layers I know hardware's working our tribe during that you know that's that's a broader conversation and we are part of the farm to plate network we work very closely there's there's a whole other food resiliency plan being developed well with Ellen and some other folks she's coming in yeah and just so you know we are we are part of that process and very much dialed in those folks um this is all really quite general um if at some later point you could highlight what the three million dollars does specifically I can send you a budget yeah that would be helpful because people will ask they it it's on top of base funding but what does that mean yeah and and just to be clear the reason we're asking for base funding is very much related to that forward contracting that we're doing with farm you know if there's any matching or anything was on this any of that would be helpful yeah we do have a budget yep yeah we'll follow up with you with that information um Irene did you have anything else thank you so much do folks have anything else for us not specifically now but we are here if you have additional questions I think it's a complicated system for my terrible food and it's very related to feeding for monsters and other weights too so don't hesitate to ask if other things come up that we can help answer yeah constituent questions yeah we're not we're not you know I know you are a little bit yeah I'm a little shy oh yeah well thank you so I just from a budgetary standpoint and I think I know the answer for this question but I'm going to ask you a question the peanut gallery the three million you think is the most vital thing for people at risk for food um that you would be asking for for an increase in prices can you can you say a little steep I understand yeah there are other asks around food there are other asks around foods but if I was going to get at people with insecurity this it must be pretty top top of the list for you guys it is for us absolutely it's tough yeah because you you folks deal with the Hobson in yours strategically located other than Chattanooga and I think somebody said that's where I'll buy answer that's where I suppose all the people and that's where I'm from that's where all the money is too yeah that's true uh they but as as we move forward through uh you know this year if um there are things that you think we should know about um you know we also will not be shocked yeah that's good that's important yeah there will be changes coming for low-key people well um if there are no other questions uh thank you very much thank you


The Cavalcade of America, presented by Dupont. Prior to the American Revolution, English players held a monopoly on theatrical entertainment in this country. One of the first Americans who dared persist in the theory that American folk life and characters were worth portrayal on the stage was Joseph Jefferson, America's first great comedian whose name is synonymous with his most famous characterization, Rip Van Winkle. It is the story of Jefferson that we are dramatizing this evening. Everyone who is fought to gain an objective in business or music or on the stage should feel a certain kinship with a famed American actor. For example, I know a lot of research chemists who would be sympathetic. These men know perhaps better than any of us what it is to make literally hundreds of attempts before reaching a goal, or perhaps having to discard an idea altogether after working on it for years. But Dupont chemists and others the world over constantly are creating new products or improving existing ones for the greater comfort and convenience of us all. Their objective is aptly expressed in the Dupont Pledge, better things for better living through chemistry. As an overture, Don Vorreys and his Cavalcade Orchestra will play poor Piero from Jerome Kern's operetta, The Cat and the Fiddle. Traveling players, his mother a featured actress in the company, and young Joseph was born literally in the theater. Many hardships attended his father's pioneering efforts to bring drought within the reach of provincial Americans. A characteristic incident occurred when Joseph was nine years old. The company was journeying by packet boat on the Erie Canal, attempting to meet expenses by playing in the various towns along the route. The night after their Syracuse engagement, young Joseph, his mother and father and the actors are gathered in the cabin of the packet boat. The actors are obviously disgruntled. I tell you my worthy followers of Thespus, with one more disaster, such as we fell us at Syracuse last night. We shall not live to reach Chicago. Why do they say that? Do they feel the Indians will show us? No, Joseph. They're complaining because we don't make more money. Mr. Jefferson, as you know, we are all experienced actors of reputation. Why, of course. That empty house we played to in Syracuse last night was an affront to our dignity. Yes, and to our pocket books as well. It is not a matter for jest, Mr. Jefferson. I agree. I suspect we did not take in enough money to pay our full passage on this boat. Your suspicions are entirely correct, my dear ladies. Mr. Jefferson, this is not a time for liberty. The situation is serious. Good evening, Mr. Jefferson. Oh, good evening, Captain. Unpleasant weather on the eerie tonight. I ain't come to discuss the weather, Mr. Jefferson. I've come to discuss a matter of ten dollars passage money that's still on to me.  I'll hold all your luggage. You mean you'll hold our costumes and clothing? Why, that's ridiculous. Oh, Mr. Jefferson, yes. He's responsible. Please, please be reasonable, Captain. It is not our fault that it rained in Syracuse last night. I know nothing about it and care less. Acton's a devil's business. My parents' teaching don't permit me to see play Acton on a stage. But, I'll tell you, I've got a hankering to see what Acton's like. I'll make you a sport and proposition, Mr. Jefferson. Yes, Captain? If the folks in your troop will cut up for me here a bit in the cabin, just to give me a taste of what play Acton's like, I'll call it square about the passage money only. Now that is a sporting proposition. Ladies and gentlemen, you have heard the Captain's offer. Will you help me redeem your luggage by performing a scene from one of our plays? No, I certainly don't. I should say no. Captain's offer is an insult to our profession. Asking us to cut up for him. I shall retire to the upper deck. And I will go with you. Oh, stay, please stay. It'll be such an easy matter to oblige the Captain. I should say no. Oh, let them go, dear. We'll find some way to pay the Captain if I have to sign on as a deckhand. Father! Yes, Joe? Let me help. I'll give the Captain a show. What? A little shaver-like? What? A little shaver-like? What? A little shaver-like? What? A little shaver-like? What? A little slad-nobot play act. Well, I'll have you know, Captain, that my son is the fourth Jefferson in a direct line to adopt the stage as his profession. Has the lad ever performed on the stage? Our son made a successful appearance when he was but four years old with the great T.D. Rice. The black-faced minstrel who sings Jump Jim Crow and Zip Coon? Well, I've heard tell him up and down the whole length of the canal. I can sing Zip Coon just the way Mr. Rice sings it. He taught me how. Well, mind you. I ain't sayin' I'll take the lad's song and return for that ten dollars, Mr. Jefferson. I'll have to hear it first. Shall I sing now, Mother? Shall I dance, too? Yes, sing and dance the first dance of this. We'll see if the Captain enjoys it. Mother, you play the guitar. All right. Sandy Holler, a taller afternoon. And the first man of chances, he was Old Zip Coon. Old Zip Coon, he is. And now you follow forward. I'm satisfied. And your passage money is paid, Mr. Jefferson.  Thank you. Thank you, Captain. Well, see you folks on deck. But Vicki liked it. Don't you worry about the applause, child. I'm proud of you. You earned more in these few minutes than my whole company earned last night at Syracuse. Ten dollars for one song. And you're only nine years old. Just keep that record up, my boy. You'll be a credit to your mother and father. And to the American stage. Joseph Jefferson followed the family tradition and became an actor. But despite his early practical training and inherent love for the theater, he had reached the age of 29 without having attained any more than the standing of a respectable member of a stock company. He was far from his goal of being a star. The year is 1858. We find young Jefferson and his wife on vacation in a Pennsylvania boarding house, whiling away a rainy afternoon reading and chatting. The bitter experience facing the fact that I'm a failure. Failure or nonsense, Joseph. Just this rainy afternoon depressing you. Tomorrow the sun will shine and you'll be making plans for next season. Plans for another season in stock. Well, I suppose I should be grateful for it. It's a living. After all, I'm only a comedian. But a great comedian, dear. I wish the public thought so, Margaret. You know, I'm still obsessed with the desperate longing to find a great comedy role. A role in which tears will alternate with laughter. Someday, perhaps years hence, a great dramatist will create such a character. But I'm afraid I shan't be alive to play the role. Hmm? Oh, I'm so sorry. What did you say, dear? It's just the same old dream, Margaret. You've heard it too often. I don't wonder you've returned to your book. Oh, forgive me. What are you reading? The Life and Letters of Washington Irving. Oh, it's fascinating, Joseph. His descriptions are so perfect. Hmm. What? Why, Joseph, here's your name. He mentions you. No, it can't be. It's my father, Douglas. Oh, no, no, it isn't, dear. Listen, he said, I saw the young Joe Jefferson at Laura King's Theater as Goldfinch in the Road to Ruin book. I thought his father one of the best actors I've ever seen. And the sun reminds me of him in look, gesture, size, and makeup. I was delighted with Young Jefferson's performance. But Washington Irving mentions only distinguished people, beautiful men and women. Oh, but... I feel practically immortal to think that he actually mentioned a lonely stock company comedian like me. It is thrilling, dear. Margaret, Washington Irving's sketchbook. Why haven't I thought of it before? It's an overpowering idea. Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle, Joseph. Why, it's the role I've been seeking. Don't you see, Margaret, it's the character I dreamed of. With the proper dramatization, Rip Van Winkle can be one of the greatest characters of the American stage. From that moment, Joseph Jefferson lived, breathed, and dreamed Rip Van Winkle. He discovered several mediocre dramatizations of Washington Irving's legend, and he labored day and night to improve them. In the fall of that same year, 1858, he persuaded the manager, Mr. John T. Raymond, to present his play, Rip Van Winkle, in Carousey's Hall in Washington, D.C. The curtain has fallen on that opening performance of Rip Van Winkle starring Joseph Jefferson. At backstage, Jefferson's fellow actors are gathered in small groups discussing the play. I told Jefferson the play would ever be success, but of course he wouldn't listen. You know, there were times during rehearsals when he nearly convinced me that he was right and we were all wrong. No. But you can't fool the American public. Why, certainly not. Scarcely any applause after the final curtain. The greatest failure I've seen in my 20 years in the theater. Well, after all, what is Rip Van Winkle? A story of a good-for-nothing village loafer and drunkard. What a hero. You know, I've almost begun to wonder if there isn't something wrong with Joe Jefferson. With his brain, I mean.  Here comes the manager. Yes, yes. On his way to Jefferson's dressing room, I'd give half a week's pay to hear what he tells Jefferson about this performance. Good evening, Mr. Raymond. Good evening. Mr. Jefferson still needs room. We haven't seen him come out, sir. Have I asked him to wait for me? Oh, I've been waiting for you, Mr. Raymond. Come in. Yeah. Well, Jefferson, there's no need in my telling you the play was a dismal failure. No. There's no need. I'm sorry, Mr. Raymond. Greatest failure I've ever seen in the theater. Here, you better close the door or some of the cast is outside. Oh, yes. I'm sorry for your sake, Mr. Raymond, that the play wasn't a success.  What's that? Go back to the roles you can play. Ace are clenched in our American cousin, Bob Bakers and the rivals. Caleb Plummer, those are the roles for you. Mr. Raymond, I won't believe that Rip Van Winkle need be a failure. What? Well, you know, every man has a dream, a goal which gives him hope. Well, my dream, my ambition, is to become as distinguished in the field of comedy as Edwin Forrest and Edwin Booth are in the field of tragedy. You're deluding yourself, my poor Jefferson. A comedian will never be recognized as a great actor. The public accepts only tragedians, as artists. A wise man knows his own limitations. Well, permit me my dream, Mr. Raymond. I granted it that my dramatization of Rip Van Winkle was poor, but tonight's performance has proved to me that the character of Rip Van Winkle is all that I'd hoped. From this moment, I have but one goal, to find a playwright capable of creating a strong play for this great character. It was five years before Joseph Jefferson's dream approached fulfillment. Failing in his attempts to interest playwrights in the story, he was obliged to accept a four-year stock company engagement in Australia. Finally, upon his arrival in London from Australia, he persuaded the brilliant playwright, Dian Boussico, to dramatize the appealing tale of the lovable, shiftless Dutchman of the Catskill Mountains. Now at last in the year 1865, the critical moment in Joseph Jefferson's life is at hand. He is on the stage of the Adelphi Theatre in London, preparing for the final rehearsal of the new play, Rip Van Winkle. Dian Boussico, the author, has just entered the theatre and Jefferson greets him eagerly. Oh, Boussico, I fear you'd never attend a rehearsal. I'm so anxious for your opinion. Well, I hope the play's a success for your sake, Jefferson. Thank you. I'm sorry, it's to open a Webster's theatre. What? Is the gossip true then about your quarrel with Webster? True. Certainly it's true. Webster's a pompous, strutting and compoop.  An acting, writing, stage-sets. The fool should never be permitted to manage a theatre. Should be hawking fish to housewives. Well, here, rally-round by fellow Thespians, the great Mr. Boussico, the second Shakespeare, is delivering himself of an opinion. That's enough from you, Bedford. Now, listen, Boussico. Can't you and Webster declare a truce till after the opening night? We three must work together while it's your play, his theatre, and my first great role. There'll be no truce, Mr. Jefferson. Glory, it's Mr. Webster himself. So I must strutting and compoop. Am I, Boussico? You've known my opinion of you for some time, Webster.  Your Rip Van Winkle will not open here on Monday night, nor will my theatre ever gain the harbour of play of yours. Rip Van Winkle won't open? If you think I'm dependent upon your patronage, well, sir, you're mistaken. I'll be well pleased never to set foot within this so-called theatre of yours again. Good day to you. Boussico, wait! You're not called upon to interfere, Jefferson. The cost is dismissed. What? Mr. Webster, you can't mean this. It's been rehearsed for weeks. The play's been advertised throughout London.  No vain hot-tempered dramatist will call me a clown, and ignorant... Mr. Webster, will you hear me, sir? Nothing you say better will change my mind. You will clap, Mr. Webster, that I'm one of the oldest and the most popular stars in the British Isle. Yes, but what's that got to do with the situation? Just this, sir. Mr. Jefferson, in a manner of speaking, came here to London to compete with me in my own field. My nose was a bit out of joint to be offered a secondary part in this play. But after Mr. Jefferson's very first reading, I lost all my resentment in honest admiration. Mr. Jefferson's ability has nothing to do with the case. It's still Boussico's play and I refuse to produce it. It's true, Mr. Webster. It's Boussico's play. And that's the only reason Mr. Jefferson consented to open here in London, because Boussico had a contract with you. Mr. Jefferson was anxious for the American people to hear if Van Winkle first.  What do you mean by that? You and the people of London will be the losers. I beg you, let London have the triumph of first producing this great play. Or shall I say, for Miss Joseph Jefferson to score his greatest success in our country? That's a significant praise from a British actor for a Yankee. It's the honest praise of one actor for the talents of a far superior artist. That is the greatest compliment I've ever received. I shall never forget your words. Mr. Webster, Rip Van Winkle must open Monday night. Believe me, 100 years from now, 50. In 25 years, your quarrel with Boussico will be forgotten. It's of no importance if you'll pardon the liberty of an old actor. If your name survives, Mr. Webster, it will survive as the man who first presented the great American comedian Joseph Jefferson in his greatest role, Rip Van Winkle. Joseph Jefferson in Rip Van Winkle did open at the Adelpe Theater in London on that Monday night, September 5th, 1865. The curtain rises on the fourth act. Rip Van Winkle has returned to his native village, Falling Waters, in the Catskill Mountains after his strange sleep of 20 years. His hair and beard are long and white, bleached by the storms that have rolled over his head.  Even young Hendrik Wetter, who loves Rip's daughter, does not recognize the old man, but he attempts to be friendly. Just tell me where I live. What's your name? Well, I don't know, but I believe I know what it used to be. My name, it used to be Rip Van Winkle. Mr. Winkle, are you there? Mr. Winkle, impossible. Well, I wouldn't say to it myself. I tell you how it was. Last night, I went very up into the mountain, and I met this strange kind of man, and we got drinking, and I guess I got pretty drunk, and then I woke up this morning, I was dead. Well, tell him he's crazy. Rip Van Winkle's been dead these 20 years. Send him away. Are we so soon forgotten we are gone? No one remembers Rip Van Winkle. And then Rip's wife Gretchen invites Rip to dine at her house, although she does not know him. And at Gretchen's house, Rip is in despair because his daughter, Meanie, does not know him either. Why do you gaze so earnestly and fondly on me? I'm afraid to tell you, my dear, because if you say it is not true, maybe it would break my heart. But, Meanie, either I dream or I am mad, but I am your father. My father? Yeah, but put the tear me, my dear, and then you will know I... Now, this village here is the village of falling waters. Well, that was my home. I have here in this place my wife Gretchen and my child Meanie, little Meanie, and my dog Schneider. That's... That's all the family what I got. Oh, try and remember me, dear, won't you? You see, this night there was a storm and my wife drives me from my house and I went away. And so I got back now and my wife is gone and my home is gone and my child looks in my face and don't know who I am. I do, father. Oh, my child. Somebody knows me now. Somebody knows me. And at length as this great American folk play ends, Rip produces from his old game bag a document which proves that the scoundrel Derek has unlawfully seized his property and at last Gretchen knows her husband, Rip Van Winkle. Oh, Rip. I drove you from your home but do not desert me again. I will never speak one unkind word to you and you shall never see a crown on my face. Rip. You may even stealth all night if you like. No, thank you. I had enough of that. Oh, Rip. It is often as you please. No, I don't touch another drop. Oh, yes, you will, father. But see, there are all the neighbors coming to welcome you home. Well, and the neighbors and the dogs and everyone... Have a drink, Rip. No, thank you. I small hope, you know. I won't count this one. But this, this will go down with a prayer. I'll drink all your good health and your families and may they all live long and prosper. Then Winkle became Jefferson's whole existence. It was never necessary for him to play any other role. Jefferson was the first American actor to dignify the art of comedy in this country. Through his superb artistry and through his persistent efforts to raise the social and intellectual standing of the actor, Joseph Jefferson helped gain undying prestige for the American stage. And he has accorded the American actor an honored place in the cavalcade of America. When you attend a theater or a movie, the actors on the stage or on the screen will hold your attention. Without them, there would be no show. But they'd be the first to tell you that without the people behind the scenes, directors, writers, cameramen, musicians, electricians, scenery experts, stagehands and countless others, there would be no play or movie. And strange as it may seem, among those backstage people are the research chemists. You can see evidence of their work on every hand. For example, the amber, blue, red and other lights which bathe the stage in warm colors are projected through feats of gelatin, products of chemistry. The colors and costumes and curtains and background drops owe their brilliance to dyes developed by the chemists. Many a costume itself is fashioned of fabrics made possible by that beautiful man-made yarn Rayon. Even the makeup used by actors and actresses on stage and screen was born in the chemist laboratory. Speaking of the movies, it was the chemists who developed the modern motion picture films now in universal use. While in many a picture palace in regular theater, the seats themselves are covered with handsome coated fabric.  Much of this beauty comes from long-lasting finishes, also products of the chemist skill. Many other examples of the chemist's contributions are to be found in the entertainment world. But these suffice to feel that research chemistry is giving its share to help us enjoy our lighter moments too. Just as chemistry's contributions to commerce and industry in the home are helping to make our lives more productive, happier, more comfortable. Though you seldom see him or hear very much about him, the research chemist is constantly at work backstage, so to speak. If you'll simply look about your home at work, or wherever you are, you will see products which he has created or improved. And his goal, aptly expressed in the Duchamp pledge, is to continue to provide better things for better living through chemistry. John W. Hyatt, the father of plastics, will be the subject of our broadcast when next week, at the same time, DuPont again presents the Cavalcade of America. This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.