Committee prioritizes Crop Cash and Farm Share funding, trims provider stabilization fund

Committee staff presented a constructed foods funding proposal showing house, senate and committee-of-conference positions and urged members to review the draft amounts.

The Moderator said the committee could not fully fund three food programs and that the conference committee’s proposal sets $300,000 for Crop Cash and Farm Share (Crop Cash described in the transcript as the fruit-and-vegetable program; 'Plus' would cover other items but was not fully funded in the proposal). “So what we’re proposing the 300,000 there just for crop cash and farm share,” the Moderator said.

Members noted that the CACFP program could do substantially more with a relatively small additional amount; the transcript records that an increase of $7,000 (reduced from an earlier $10,000 request) would enable the program to reach about 17 additional family child-care sites.

To accommodate those priorities, the committee reduced some allocations to local food shelves and food banks slightly and trimmed the provider stabilization fund by $215,000. The Moderator said that, after the cut, about $1,215,000 would remain in the provider stabilization fund as described in the meeting. Staff reported they had talked with the Vermont Food Bank and adjusted language to reflect operational realities; final distribution language will be addressed in the bill language.

The committee left the proposed amounts for members to review and planned to reconvene later in the afternoon.

Next steps: staff will circulate the constructed draft of the foods section and members will review the proposed reductions and increases before the next meeting.