Benjamin Brickner

What do you believe is the role of state government, if any, in ensuring that everyone living in Vermont has the food they need to thrive?

Hunger touches every community, including mine. The state has a legitimate role in making sure Vermonters, and especially children and older residents, can meet a need as fundamental as food. What I have learned in local government is that the role does not end with passing a program. It ends when help actually reaches the kitchen table. Too often the gap between a state policy and its delivery on the ground is where people fall through. So I see the state's job in two parts. First, support the safety net and the local partners – schools, food shelves, farms, and towns – who do the daily work. Second, hold that support to a simple test: does it reach the people who need it, and does it work. That is the lens I would bring to Montpelier.

What would be your policy priorities to move Vermont toward food security for all?

My priorities start with affordability, because food insecurity often begins somewhere else – a rent increase, a medical bill, a heating season, a property tax hike. If we want fewer Vermonters choosing between groceries and other basics, we have to bring down the overall cost of living. Alongside that, I want to keep local food within reach and local farms in business, so the food grown here helps feed the people here. I am cautious about promising specific line items before I have sat with the committees, the budget, and the people running these programs. What I will commit to is a practical standard. I would protect the investments that demonstrably reach families, ask hard questions of the ones that do not, and connect Vermont-grown food with Vermont tables. Good intentions are not enough. Results are what matter.

What do you believe are the root causes of hunger, and what should the state do to address those underlying factors?

Hunger rarely stands on its own. In my experience it is the symptom of a household budget that no longer stretches far enough. When housing, childcare, health care, and property taxes all climb faster than wages, food is often the first thing families cut, because it is the one bill with no due date. So the honest answer is that you cannot solve hunger by looking only at food. You have to address the pressures that empty the grocery budget in the first place. That means treating affordability as one connected problem rather than a list of separate ones. I do not think any single bill fixes this. It takes steady attention to the cost of living across the board, and a willingness to measure whether what we are doing actually leaves families with more room at the end of the month.

How would you help strengthen the state’s agriculture and food economy to ensure Vermont farms can continue to grow the food we all need?

I live in North Pomfret, surrounded on all sides by working lands and the families who work them, so this question is close to home. Those neighbors tell me the same thing. They want to keep farming and pass the operation to their kids, and they need the math to work to do it. Strengthening our farm economy means paying attention to the things that decide whether a farm survives – land costs, labor, markets, and a regulatory system that protects the environment without making it impossible to build a barn or set aside a housing lot for the next generation. I would bring a working landscape lens to Montpelier, and a willingness to listen to farmers before deciding what helps them. I don't pretend to have every answer. I do know these farms are worth keeping, and that the people running them deserve a real hearing.