Committee approves amendment to H.167 to create Vermonters Feeding Vermonters grant, recommends $2 million appropriation

The Committee on Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry on an 8-0 roll-call vote amended H.167 and voted to recommend the bill as amended. The bill would create a “Vermonters Feeding Vermonters” grant program at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and appropriate $2,000,000 from the general fund to support purchases of local food for distribution through food bank channels and to offer subgrants to food‑bank network partners.

The program is intended to let the agency or the Vermont Food Bank buy local food directly from Vermont farms for distribution through the food bank’s network and to make subgrants to network partners so they can buy directly from local farms. The committee approved language changing several references in the draft so subgrants and purchases are available from “local farms of all sizes” rather than being limited to “small local farms.”

Why it matters: supporters said the program aims to create a steady, centrally funded mechanism—rather than repeated one‑off requests to the legislature—so the agency or the food bank can annually…