Michelle Bos-Lun (D-Windham-3), a third-term Vermont state representative from Westminster, is a member of the House Agriculture, Food Resiliency, and Forestry Committee. She is assisted this spring by a legislative intern, Taylor Abrams, a senior studying political science and economics at the University of Vermont.
WESTMINSTER-Recent federal cuts to food access programs and local food purchasing from farms for schools and food shelves have created a number of challenges for the Vermont food system. At the same time, economic uncertainties - including tariffs and threatened federal cuts - are making it even more difficult for Vermont households to make ends meet.
It is more important than ever for our state to make policy choices that support food security for all Vermonters and support our local farms and agricultural producers during these unpredictable times.
On April 8, H.167, which establishes the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters Grant at the Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets, passed out of the Vermont House of Representatives with a unanimous vote. The Senate Agriculture Committee has begun taking testimony.
If enacted, this bill will enshrine in statute and fund a program to purchase local food - produce and proteins - from Vermont farms and distribute that food through food shelves, meal sites, and produce distributions across the state.
This bill, which would continue and enshrine into law the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters program - established by the Vermont Foodbank in 2018 and funded with a combination of state and private philanthropic funds - comes at a time when the state has seen increased numbers of people facing food insecurity.
A 2022 study from the University of Vermont showed that two in five Vermonters experienced food insecurity that year. The Putney Foodshelf, a community partner in the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters program, experienced a "250% increase in the number of households they serve since 2020. Just from 2022, the increase is 158%."
An April 2 Burlington Free Press article notes that food pantries were already struggling to meet the demand for food assistance. With a growing population of people who are food insecure, and now a diminishing supply of subsidized food, the need for clear-cut legislation that can help support Vermonters is immediate.
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As instrumental as this program would be in assisting those who are food insecure, its value is also largely in providing funds and a new market to local Vermont farms. For every dollar spent purchasing food from these farms, $1.60 goes back into the state's economy.
In 2024, the Vermonters Feeding Vermonters Program has supported nearly 300 local farms with $2.4 million in local food purchases.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), under the Trump administration, has cut almost $2 million from state farm food purchasing by canceling Vermont's Local Food for Schools program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement.
These cuts affect not only those relying on the programs, but the farmers who were preparing to supply the food for them. Farms had been preparing for these government subsidies and to use them to expand their operations in order to support Vermont's food assistance programs. The farms are left in the dust as a result of these cuts.
Additionally, 12 truckloads of food headed for Vermont food pantries were canceled as a result of USDA cuts for food assistance programs. John Sayles, the CEO of the Vermont Foodbank, does not know if further cuts will be made to these programs.
The Legislature also opposed on a bipartisan front a repeal to Vermont's Universal School Meals Program - only one of many budget cuts proposed by Gov. Phil Scott for FY26.
Scott claims this return to the need-based system for school lunches will help lower property taxes.
The Universal School Meals program costs around $18 million annually - less than 1% of the $2 billion budget for Vermont education.
This troubling proposal would have negative impacts on Vermont students. A need-based system creates stigma for students who get free and reduced-cost meals at school. Furthermore, the USDA has estimated that returning to an application-based system would cost $100,000 per school district.
The federal budget cuts for food assistance and farm-support programs in Vermont could make it even more difficult for our small, local farms to survive. Between January 2012 and October 2023, nearly half of our small dairy farms (those with fewer than 200 cows) closed down, according to a recent University of Vermont Extension report. That's a loss of more than 800 farms.
Vermont's need for food assistance programs is not diminishing. Neither should the viability of its farms.
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Bill H.167 takes a critical step toward closing the gap between supply and demand for local food in all places, including through food access programs.
The need for food assistance programs is more important than ever, as is the need to support local farmers. Vermonters should know the Legislature is working to support farms and food needs through trying times and a suffering economy.
This Voices Legislative Update was submitted to The Commons.
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