If you drive down any residential street in Vienna, it’s impossible not to see dozens of lawn signs of varying colors and patterns, all emblazoned with a heart. These signs are the symbol of the local nonprofit, Rustic Love. 

“I wanted to create a simple heart design for the sign I was envisioning and liked the simplicity of the outline of a heart,” Michelle Connors, the founder and Executive Director of Rustic Love, said. “The design was functional and emotional—functional to accommodate a punched-out template with that outline, and emotional as far as the open notch of the heart signifying the open hearts we had for our community.” 

Rustic Love is a Vienna staple, appearing at major town events like Viva Vienna and collaborating with town institutions like the Caboose Brewing Company and the Freedman Store. The non-profit’s dedication to serving the Vienna community, and beyond, are a testament to the founders dedication to helping the food-insecure community. 

Founded in the heart of the pandemic during 2020, Rustic Love began with one family and has expanded to include a whole town. 

“My kids and I started Rustic Love as a simple fundraiser in the early days of Covid to help area restaurants stay afloat and feed food-insecure families with the food made as a result of the financial donations,” Connors said. “We received such incredible support from our community that we decided to keep growing and become an official 501(c), non-profit organization, devoted to helping the food-insecure. The past two years we focus mainly on funding local school food pantries—including the one at Madison.” 

Each sign is handmade and proceeds from the sale of the beloved signs goes to various philanthropic endeavors, including donations to those dealing with food insecurity, schools and food pantries as well as monetary donations to other nonprofits. 

Over the nearly five years the nonprofit has been active, Rustic Love has raised over $500,000 through the sale of over 6,000 painted wooden signs. Recently, the Rustic Love team commissioned the painting of a mural on the side of town staple Greenheart, known for its cold-pressed juices. The mural has a white background with the classic Rustic Love hearts overlapping each other in shades of blue and pink.This community outreach is essential to Rustic Love’s mission. 

“The Vienna community is quite simply the backbone of our organization,” Connors said. “While we get donations and sell signs outside of Vienna, it is this amazing community that shows up over and over with financial donations, volunteer time and positive reinforcement, allowing us to continue to work towards our mission of helping the food-insecure. We are so grateful for the ongoing support.”