Food security wins and progress in the Vermont State House
Child Nutrition Policy Lead Keely Agan at the Vermont State House sharing an update on our advocacy to support sponsor organizations of the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
Friday not only marked the first day of spring, but it also marked the final day of crossover in the Legislature.
OK, well what is “crossover” anyway? Bills needed to get passed out of committee in one of the chambers (aka the House or Senate) and “cross over” into another before Friday—otherwise they would be done for the session. This includes the large Budget Bill, which determines how state funding will be spent in the upcoming fiscal year.
While the deadline has passed to consider new bills, there is lots of work ahead to get food security funding priorities over the finish line.
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee worked to finish their budget. It is set to move to the House Floor later this week and, from there, on to the Senate. We saw some big wins for food security requests in the House Appropriations budget, including:
Full funding of $182,000 to the Agency of Education to distribute among sponsor organizations operating the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) as an incentive for the Sponsoring Organizations of the CACFP
Full funding of $500,000 to Bridges to Health to sustain their health outreach and care coordination for migrant and immigrant workers and families not otherwise served by existing programs while they transition to be housed under Vermont’s Free & Referral Clinics
Full funding of $500,000 for NOFA-VT’s Crop Cash, Crop Cash Plus, and Farm Share Programs to sustain these proven programs that increase local food access for lower-income folks while supporting Vermont farmers’ bottom lines
$400,000 to Vermont Foodbank’s Vermonters Feeding Vermonters program to purchase Vermont-grown food and distribute across their network of community partners
$500,000 to Vermont Foodbank’s Ready Response efforts to support food distribution as part of the state’s emergency and disaster response
$1 million to the Land Access and Opportunity Board to continue their work addressing housing equity and land access for historically marginalized and disadvantaged communities
Finally, we are thrilled that S.60, the Farm and Forestry Operations Security Special Fund Act was delivered to the governor’s desk on Friday, March 20.
We were disheartened to see that funding was not included in the House budget for a collective request to fund benefit assisters at service-providing organizations to support Vermonters in keeping their 3SquaresVT and Medicaid benefits. But we’re not giving up! There’s still potential pathways to get this important request over the finish line.
What’s next for us at the State House?
We will be meeting with Senators and testifying in key committees as they consider budget and policy priorities that came from our work in the House. As the session rolls on, Senate committees will develop budget priorities and deliver them to Senate Appropriations, where they will put together their chamber’s version of the budget bill.
We will continue to keep you updated on all things State House as efforts progress. Please reach out to our Legislative Policy Lead Autumn Moen to share your thoughts or ask your questions.