WESTMINSTER — The Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE) program, which has provided COVID-19 relief support for Vermont restaurants, farmers, and meal recipients since Aug. 1, 2020, will continue for a few more months.
The contract, which was to have expired on Sept. 30, has been extended to allow VEE to continue providing meals through the holiday season and the coldest months, using the remaining available balance of state funds which the Legislature allocated to the program as a component of the COVID-19 emergency response and recovery.
The Vermont Everyone Eats program is currently 90 percent funded by FEMA, and 10 percent funded by a special allocation from the Vermont Legislature.
Everyone Eats is an innovative, multi-sector COVID-19 relief program providing economic support to local restaurants, economic benefit to farmers, and restaurant-prepared meals for food-insecure Vermonters affected by the pandemic.
To date, this program has provided more than 3.2 million meals to Vermont eaters in need, along with $32 million to the local restaurants who make the meals, and more than $3 million to Vermont farmers and food producers whose ingredients are used in the meals.
All three pillars of the program - restaurants, farmers, and eaters - continue to benefit significantly from the relief this program provides.
This program, which currently distributes approximately 29,000 meals per week across Vermont, engages nearly 700 restaurants, farms, food producers, hubs, and distribution partners throughout the state's 14 counties.
Vermont Everyone Eats provides nutritious meals to Vermonters in need of food assistance as well as a stabilizing source of income for Vermont restaurants, farmers, and food producers. Vermont Everyone Eats is funded through a contract provided by the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development to Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) and is advised by a Statewide Task Force including perspectives from restaurant, economic development, and hunger relief advocates.
For more information on the program or how to receive a meal, visit the Vermont Everyone Eats website at vteveryoneeats.org.