Survival Revival
This piece is written by CAE's Food Sovereignty Organizer, Allyson Howell.
On Saturday, June 6th, 2026, about 300 Vermonters and folks from around the county showed up to the Barton Fairgrounds to kick off a series of Survival Revivals happening around the country in Illinois, Alabama, and Kansas, anchored by Northeast Kingdom Organizing's (NEKO) relationship with the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice. This also launched a new phase of “Survival Organizing” for NEKO and deepened relationships we hold with the VT Workers Center and others.
The Orleans County Fairgrounds in Barton was a fitting place to hold the Survival Revival, in the heart of the NEK, especially considering the very recent closure of the St. Albans creamery. With the decline of the family farm and dairy over the years, there has been less of a focus on agriculture at the annual Orleans County Fair compared to generations ago. This isn’t a coincidence: our connection to local food and land have been splintered over the last few generations due to policy decisions that have disproportionately and negatively impacted rural people and communities like Barton. We feel it's important to stake our own claim and lift up these critical places, and it’s also close to NEKO’s Barton Hub.
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The goal was to meet people’s material and spiritual needs in response to our current crisis of unmet needs. “Before the onslaught of regressive and dangerous political maneuvers from the current administration, tens of millions of people in this country were already struggling to meet their basic needs. In 2024, 140 million people (41.5% of the population) were poor or low-income, living just one emergency away from further crisis.” (Kairos Center). There was a free dumpster so folks could dispose of their trash, community meal, pet supplies, people’s health clinic (free blood pressure, glucose checks, and more), car clinic to talk vehicle maintenance, plant seedlings, muck and gut workshop (flood recovery), Migrant Justice table, face painting, singing, art making, an electric series of speak outs, and more.
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Northeast Kingdom Organizing (NEKO) was a project of CAE way back in 2015. We conducted a listening campaign with the Hardwick Area Food Pantry to identify more of the barriers to food security, hoping to learn how CAE could continue to bridge the divide between local food production and consumption. What came out of that listening revealed so much more – barriers to transportation, employment, and mental and physical health services – which all have ripple effects and are intertwined with food sovereignty. NEKO was the result of this work, first as a program of CAE and, since 2019, as an independent 501c3 nonprofit. NEKO is a community-led, grassroots organizing project doing on-the-ground relational organizing and coordination to spark connection, change, and redistribute power among residents of the NEK. CAE remains a founding member and key partner of NEKO, and several of our staff support their work in different capacities through their roles at CAE, including the CAE’s Food Sovereignty Organizer.
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The Survival Organizing model is inspired by the abolitionist movement and Underground Railroad (which have histories all the way here in the NEK*) and Johnnie Tillmon. That everyday people acted on their values to take care of their neighbors, coupled with political analysis, built a broader movement over time. This framework really spoke to NEKO leaders, as flood recovery didn’t quite fit into other traditional community organizing models that we knew of. We also saw how flood recovery is directly interconnected to poverty, food insecurity, housing, substance use, health care, and broader issues around the lack of rural investment and decline. By framing our work as mutual aid and projects of survival, we could also make connections with other NEKO issue campaigns and projects. CAE’s Food Sovereignty Organizer attended two learning opportunities over the last 10 months with local leaders from the VT Workers Center, NEKO, Barton Hub, and KURRVE, and leaders from across the country, in Baltimore and Texas to learn about Survival Organizing and prepare for this Survival Revival.
The relationship with the VT Workers Center really began with the 2024 Wyman Report, which recommended that North Country Hospital cut services in a community that is already stretched perilously thin. The VT Workers Center has been organizing around health care access for over 30 years. NEKO and the VT Workers Center, along with Newport Downtown Development, organized a rally in downtown Newport in response, canvassing to activate and raise community awareness. Kairo’s Director of Policy, Shailly Gupta Barnes, spoke and CAE’s Food Sovereignty Organizer co-MC’d (Ally grew up in the Newport area). It was here that NEKO leaders first heard about the Survival Organizing concept from A Matter of Survival co-author, Shailly Gupta Barnes, and what sparked the “aha” moment.
This is a long term movement. The goal is to host more Survival Revivals around the NEK and state, while being connected to other states doing the same, continuing to seed deep connections with communities who are struggling to meet basic needs and connecting them to a broader framework and vision that’s rooted in joy, resilience, and connection through the shared struggle. “We always seem to have money for bombs while fuel costs, health care, and housing are pinching folks' ability to meet their basic food needs. I'm deeply concerned that the food access needs of our neighbors are increasing while the supportive resources are becoming slimmer by the day,” said Ally Howell, CAE’s Food Sovereignty Organizer, “We know how to organize to meet our needs – now is the time! Food is a basic human right and a matter of survival.”
To learn more about this movement and how to get involved, contact Ally Howell allyson@caevt.org
Here are examples of a few of the songs from the Survival Revival:
*Young, Darlene (1998). A History of Barton, Vermont. Pages 129 - 131.
Read Kairos Center 2025 report on Survival Organizing: A Matter of Survival: Organizing to Meet Unmet Needs and Build Power in Times of Crisis.
Watch the recent national press release announcing the Survival Revival with the Kairos Center, featuring Allyson Howell and Reverend Alyssa May (Orleans Federated Church) and other Survival Revival Cohort leaders from Illinois, Alabama and Kansas.
