Hunger Free Vermont urges lawmakers to preserve universal school meals, backs SNAP restaurant-meals pilot

Anora Horton, executive director of Hunger Free Vermont, told the Vermont Senate Agriculture Committee on Jan. 29 that federal nutrition programs and recent state expansions have materially increased food access across the state, but that program funding and participation remain fragile.

Horton said Hunger Free Vermont provides technical assistance, outreach and training to schools, food shelves, child-care providers and other local partners to expand equitable access to federal nutrition programs. She warned the committee that a recent federal administrative action had frozen some funding streams — an order a federal judge has temporarily paused — and that state lawmakers may need to advocate to preserve program funding at the federal level.

Horton described three program areas she said warrant attention: sustaining Universal School Meals (the state law that expanded free school meals), increasing participation in 3 Squares Vermont (Vermont’s SNAP program), and authorizing a Restaurant Meals Program (RMP) for people who cannot shop or cook at home. She said the Universal School Meals law has delivered larger-than-expected returns: serving about 2.5 million more student meals than projected and enabling at least 1 million summer meals last year, while generating roughly $10 million in additional federal reimbursements for schools. Horton said the governor’s proposed budget would repeal the Universal School Meals law in its entirety.

Horton gave enrollment and program-scale figures for 3 Squares Vermont, noting about $13,000,000 in federal benefits flow through the program each month in Vermont; about 65,000 people are enrolled, including roughly 19,000 children and 17,000 people over age 60, across about 39,000 households. She added that only about 40% of likely-eligible people currently participate, citing application barriers as a major factor.

To reach more people, Hunger Free Vermont supports a bill to opt Vermont into the federal SNAP Restaurant Meals Program, which allows certain eligible households (people age 60 and older, people with disabilities, and people experiencing homelessness) to use SNAP benefits to buy prepared meals from participating restaurants and food trucks. Horton said other states have implemented the option, that the legislature can set priorities (for example, geographic preference and incentives for restaurants that buy local food), and that locally owned Vermont restaurants have expressed interest.

The bill Hunger Free Vermont expects to file would request $100,000 to fund a navigator position at the Department for Children and Families, Economic Services Division (the state office that administers 3 Squares Vermont), plus $75,000 in one-time funds to help restaurants with start-up costs (for example, point-of-sale modifications). Horton said the meal benefits themselves are federally funded and would not be paid by the state.

Horton described Hunger Free Vermont’s funding mix: most revenue comes from private foundations, donors and businesses; roughly 13% is government grants. She also described partnerships with the Vermont Food Bank, the Vermont Farm to School Network, the Center for an Agricultural Economy and University of Vermont researchers; she said those partnerships help connect school and summer meal programs with local farms and food hubs.

Committee senators asked about program waste tracking and meal-count reporting for summer and school meal programs; Horton said sites report daily participation figures to meal providers and that program operators use a range of strategies (menu planning, bulk dispensers, composting, repurposing prepared food) to minimize waste. On funding requests that appear in the Vermont Food Security Roadmap coalition’s package, Horton said those are coalition requests and that she had not reviewed the governor’s full fiscal-year proposal line-by-line.

Horton closed by offering Hunger Free Vermont’s assistance to legislators and staff on outreach, enrollment and technical assistance.

Ending: The committee did not take any formal votes during the testimony. Members asked follow-up questions and signaled continued interest; Horton said she would respond to committee questions and make materials available to senators and staff.