Advocates ask Vermont Senate committee to expand SNAP options, boost food‑bank and senior meal funding

Advocates for Vermont food‑security programs urged the Senate Committee on Government Operations on Thursday, Feb. 6, to approve four actions they said would increase access to food and strengthen the state’s emergency food response.

Anurag Horton, executive director of Hunger Free Vermont, told the committee the coalition’s requests are: opt Vermont into the SNAP restaurant meals program with start‑up funds and a state navigator position (S.42); provide $500,000 in base funding for NOFA Vermont’s Crop Cash and Farm Share programs; appropriate $5,000,000 (combination of base and one‑time) to the Vermont Food Bank for food purchase, farm procurement and disaster readiness; and add $2,000,000 in base general funds for home‑delivered meals for older and disabled Vermonters.

The measures, Horton said, would allow SNAP, known in Vermont as 3 Squares Vermont, to operate more flexibly for people who lack full kitchens or cannot regularly prepare meals. “This is one of the ways that 3 Squares Vermont is an economic development program for our state,” Horton said, noting SNAP brings federal dollars into Vermont’s retail and farm economy.

Nut graf: Committee members heard that the four requests aim both to expand how SNAP benefits can be used — including at participating restaurants and farmers markets…