Vermonter Kearney helps homestate foodbank

Former moguls world champion and Vermont native Hannah Kearney led a donation party Wednesday providing 30,000 pounds of Tyson chicken — enough for 120,000 meals — for the Vermont Foodbank.
BARRE, Vt. — Former moguls world champion and Vermont native Hannah Kearney led a donation party Wednesday providing 30,000 pounds of Tyson chicken — enough for 120,000 meals — for the Vermont Foodbank.
    Kearney, a 2006 Olympian and the 2005 moguls gold medalist at World Championships, is sponsored by Tyson Foods. With the Sprint U.S. Freestyle Championships opening Thursday at Vermont's Killington Resort, Kearney and the company decided this was an opportune time to complete the donation. Kearney is nursing an injured knee and won't defend her two U.S. titles in moguls and dual moguls this week.
    She was joined in the midday presentation by two-time Olympic moguls skier Evan Dybvig, another native Vermonter from Tunbridge and co-owner of New Hampshire's Whaleback, and U.S. Coach Brian Currutt, a 2002 Olympian, in what was billed as a "protein delivery."
    "It's great to be part of something like this," Kearney said. "Tyson has pledged to donate a million pounds of chicken over three years to Second Harvest, the network of food banks across the country … and I'm glad we had this opportunity to assist the food bank. This donation from Tyson will help a lot of people."
    Kearney, Dybvig and Currutt formed a mini-bucket brigade to offload some of the chickens, box by box, or via trolleys that moved bigger loads.
    "But then," she said, "we realized that really wasn't as efficient as we'd like. So, we got out of the way and the Food Bank moved in with its forklifts to move the pallets of chicken from the trailer truck."
    The Vermont Foodbank serves 270 nonprofit agencies in the Green Mountain State, and those agencies, officials said, assist 140,000 Vermonters annually. Christine Foster, co-interim CEO of the Vermont Foodbank, said children make up 30-plus percent of those served by the Foodbank. "Demand for food is always high. Protein or meat-related donations are highly sought after. A donation of this size will significantly impact thousands of Vermonters."