Vermont Food Bank asks House Human Services Committee for $5 million to buy local produce, warns cuts would reduce purchases and raise distribution demand

At a House Human Services Committee hearing, Carrie Sailor, senior manager of government and public affairs at the Vermont Food Bank, asked legislators to approve a $5 million package to sustain the food bank’s ability to buy Vermont-grown food and support the statewide network that distributes it.

Sailor told the committee the bank serves about 72,000 people a month, distributed roughly 14.5 million pounds of food last year and is on track for about 15 million pounds this year. She said increased purchased food — now roughly 25% of distributed food, up from about 13.8% in 2018 — makes local purchasing the fastest-growing and most costly part of the food bank’s operations.

The request Sailor outlined asks for $1,750,000 in base funding for “responsive readiness” to respond to disasters and ongoing needs, and $3,250,000 for food purchase and distribution and to bolster the capacity of network partners. She also asked for $500,000 in base funding for crop-cash and farm-share supports to strengthen Vermont farms that supply the food bank.

"Our mission is to gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships so that no one in Vermont will go hungry," Sailor said, describing the food bank’s three distribution centers in Barre, Brattleboro and Rutland and a network of roughly 215–300 community partners that include food shelves, meal sites, schools and hospitals. She said the food bank works with about 300 Vermont farms through the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters program.

Sailor summarized a recent University of Vermont study led by Dr. Meredith Niles showing that food-insecure households in Maine and Vermont experienced more frequent adverse financial events during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and are likelier to miss utility payments, accrue new credit card debt or struggle with medical bills. "Food insecurity is actually financial insecurity," she told the committee.

Committee members asked about specific programs the bank operates. Sailor described three federal and state channels for food: the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) for older adults (income-eligible at about 130% of the federal poverty level), The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) from USDA, and donated food from grocery partners and farms. She said CSFP is administratively inflexible and follows a USDA-prescribed box composition; the bank supplements cultural and dietary needs chiefly through purchased food and partner food shelves.

On SNAP outreach, Sailor said the food bank runs a statewide SNAP application-assistance team with phone, text and email lines, but that application complexity and stigma mean many eligible Vermonters are not enrolled. Committee members discussed Code for America and other technology or process partners as potential long-term fixes to application barriers; Sailor said these are longer-term system projects and that immediate investments in purchasing and network capacity are necessary now.

Sailor warned that, without the requested funds, the food bank expects significant reductions in Vermont food purchasing in fiscal 2026 and estimated a potential cut of roughly $800,000 to $1,000,000 to the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters purchasing budget, which would shift more demand onto purchased nonlocal staples or force efficiency changes in distribution.

No formal committee vote was recorded on the request during the hearing. Chair Wood said the committee will coordinate with counterparts across the hall, who are expected to take the lead on the food bank’s funding request.