Vermont Food Bank asks legislature for $5 million to shore up purchases and disaster readiness

The Vermont Food Bank asked the Legislature’s Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry Committee on Oct. 12, 2025, for $5 million in state funding to support food purchases and disaster readiness as demand for charitable food remains elevated across the state.

"Our mission is to gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships so that no one in Vermont goes hungry," said John Sales, chief executive officer of the Vermont Food Bank, as he summarized the organization’s operations and a legislative funding request. The bank requested $1,750,000 for responsive readiness and $3,250,000 for food purchase and distribution, including continued purchases of Vermont-grown food through the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters program.

The request comes amid sustained need. Sales told the committee the food bank distributed roughly 14,500,000 pounds of food last year through three distribution centers in Barre, Rutland and Brattleboro, up from about 10,000,000 pounds before the COVID-19 pandemic and down from a peak of about 20,000,000 pounds at the height of the crisis. He said donated food comprises about 60% of distributions and the organization purchased an increasing share of its supply in recent years.

Why it matters: Committee members were shown how the food bank’s network reaches across the state and how state support would help both routine operations and emergency response. The bank and Hunger Free Vermont argued legislators’ investments can help maintain local food purchasing, preserve distribution capacity and improve preparedness for floods or other disruptions.

Key facts and programs

- Network scale: Sales said the Vermont Food Bank works with roughly 300 partner organizations (food shelves, meal sites, senior centers, after-school programs) and that about 72,000 people a month are touched by its services, noting that this is not 72,000 unique individuals each month but a rolling population that fluctuates with need.

- Distribution footprint: The food bank operates three distribution centers—Barre (headquarters), Rutland and Brattleboro—and has added a cooler, freezer, truck and driver station in Rutland to improve service flexibility in southern Vermont.

- Farm and local purchasing: Sales said the organization purchases from roughly 299 farms, conducts gleaning (harvesting unmarketed produce), and has increased dollars spent on Vermont-grown food, notably during 2020–2021 when federal pandemic relief allowed forward contracting with Vermont farms.

- Federal food programs and partnerships: The food bank administers federal commodity programs such as the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TFAP) for the state and receives USDA ‘bonus’ product when markets are imbalanced. Feeding America provides access to corporate donations.

- Targeted programs: Sales described Veggie Van Gogh produce distributions (about 30 events statewide), SASH produce drops (Support and Services at Home, a Medicaid-affiliated program), a backpack program serving about 1,400 students weekly during the school year, and meals and commodity boxes for older Vermonters through CSFP.

Hunger Free Vermont’s perspective

"Our mission is to end the injustice of hunger for everyone," said Anur Horton, executive director of Hunger Free Vermont. Horton described her group’s complementary role: training and technical assistance to expand federal nutrition programs, public education, data collection, and emergency coordination with state agencies.

Horton highlighted recent state actions the organizations say have strengthened food security: universal school meals, summer EBT, farm-to-school and early childhood purchasing grants, support for Meals on Wheels, the Land Access and Opportunity Board, and incorporation of food-security language into last year’s emergency response law (Act 143, S.310).

SNAP and proposed restaurant-meals option

Horton and other presenters discussed 3 Squares Vermont (the state’s SNAP program), noting about $13 million flows into the Vermont economy each month via SNAP benefits. They said roughly 65,000 people and 39,000 households use the program monthly; 19,000 are children and 17,000 are older Vermonters.

Horton described the federal Restaurant Meals Program option for SNAP, which Vermont policymakers are considering. The program would permit certain eligible groups—households with all members age 60 or older, people with disabilities, or people experiencing homelessness—to use SNAP benefits at participating restaurants, food trucks or hot meal vendors.

Horton said the change could aid disaster response (for example, by enabling displaced residents to buy hot meals from food trucks after flooding) and ease access for people who cannot store or prepare groceries. Committee members asked technical questions about eligibility, point-of-sale equipment and grocery retailers with hot-bars; presenters said EBT cards can be accepted by standard point-of-sale systems once the appropriate software is enabled.

Questions from committee members

Committee members pressed presenters on logistics and timelines for gleaning, capacity constraints caused by Vermont’s terrain, and whether Rutland’s added freezer eased distribution bottlenecks. Sales said a week’s lead time is common for a nonrecurring glean, though some farms are on weekly gleaning schedules. He added that Rutland’s new cooler/freezer and local truck improved flexibility.

Representative Priscilla Nelson asked how quickly the food bank could respond to perishable harvests; Sales and Carrie Staylor, manager of government and public affairs at the Vermont Food Bank, said they could coordinate rapid gleaning and volunteer mobilization and sometimes work with regional gleaning groups such as Salvation Farms or other local partners.

Funding request and next steps

Both organizations urged the committee to fund the Vermont Food Bank’s $5 million request and to continue state policy work that expands access to federal nutrition programs. They offered to return for further briefing and to provide detailed slides and follow-up answers to technical questions.

Closing note: Presenters emphasized that while charitable food distribution remains essential, their organizations also support structural changes—expanded federal program access, school meals, farm purchasing—that reduce long-term reliance on emergency food.

Ending: Committee members thanked the presenters and noted staff would follow up on technical questions; no formal committee votes or directives were recorded in the transcript.