Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Nutrition Food Security topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Nutrition and food-security groups seek state support for CACFP, Meals on Wheels and farmer-market programs
Summary
Childcare nutrition sponsors, older-adult meal programs, food banks and farm-to-family programs asked the Senate committee for targeted state funding to stabilize child and elder nutrition services and to preserve SNAP matching programs at farmers markets.
Representatives of child nutrition programs, older-adult meal services and statewide food security organizations told the Senate Health & Welfare Committee the state needs targeted investment to sustain nutrition programs that serve thousands of Vermonters.
Amy Fales, nutrition and education manager at BROC Community Action, asked the committee to appropriate $182,000 to the Agency of Education’s Child Nutrition Programs in FY26 to support sponsoring organizations that administer the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Fales said the state has lost sponsoring organizations in recent years due to insufficient federal reimbursement for administrative costs; without state help, remaining sponsors could drop out, which would cut meals for children in registered child-care homes.
Mary Hayden, representing Meals on Wheels programs, requested $2 million in FY26 for the Older Vermonters Nutrition Program. Hayden said Meals on Wheels in Vermont served more than 17,000 people and delivered more than a million meals last year; the program provides social contact and medically tailored meals for people managing chronic illness.
Terri Staley of Vermont Food Bank asked for $1.25 million of a $5 million total request to support community food shelves and meal sites that provide fresh and prepared meals across the state; she said partners are seeing increased demand and that some food shelves have much higher client volumes than before the pandemic.
Joanna Doran of NOFA Vermont sought $500,000 to sustain and expand Crop Cash Plus and the FarmShare program, which match SNAP benefits at farmers markets and subsidize community-supported agriculture shares for low-income Vermonters. Crop Cash doubles SNAP purchasing power at participating markets but requires state matching funds to draw down federal resources; a House one-time appropriation covers part of the need but does not fund the expanded Crop Cash Plus pilot.
Committee staff said they will consolidate written budget materials and spreadsheets submitted by witnesses so appropriators can evaluate which items are already included in House funding and which require new appropriations.
