Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Before lunch here, we're going to hear from Food Bank. From Vermont Food Bank, that is, on bill the that we passed last year creating at the state level the feeding Vermonters program. Was that h one sixty seven? It was. Yeah. So that was, we passed it last year, it was signed into law, it went into effect immediately on July 1. So we've got some months behind us now, and curious to know what's happened so far.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: Thank you, mister chair. For the record, I'm John Sales, CEO of the Vermont Food Bank. I live here in Montpelier and happy to be here. As the chair said, sorry, that's a look at my face to log on. That's okay. Year and want to thank the committee for all the work you did on H. 167. We're really grateful for that and getting it through the whole process and having the governor enthusiastically signing it. We immediately started conversations with the agency of agriculture on a contract. That was signed for effective expected date of July 1. And the grant agreement sets out that there will be a first report and then the agency would it was $500,000 that was appropriated for this program. And so initially, 200,000 with the grant agreement came to the food bank. This was in response to invoices that we provided for expenditures for Vermont products that are in compliance with the legislation. There is an interim report due on no later than February 23. In fact, I know in the next two weeks, my team is meeting again with Abby Willard, to talk about the interim report. And and then no later than August 31, the final report, that interim report, there would be another $200,000 unlocked. And the final report, final $100,000 above $500,000 As There we go. Some of you, we do have a new member of the committee who wasn't here and didn't hear all about Vermonters feeding Vermonters. So just quickly, the program goals and strategy was to purchase a diversity of fresh, nutritious and locally produced foods by the food bank to pay a fair price to our farmers, our Vermont farmers. Provide farmers with large scale contracts that provide them with increasing security and predictability of sales, sales volumes and prices. All that is negotiated ahead of time. And then to provide funding to Vermont Food Bank partners, some of our food shelf and meal site partners around the state, who can then create partner relationships with local smaller farms that it doesn't make sense for the food bank. They can't deliver pallet quantities. And then the local partners can then purchase fresh local food directly from those smaller farmers. And then also seeking out creative partnerships with underserved communities and farmers to make sure that we're meeting the food needs of all the different populations in Vermont. So some populations have different food needs, and we want to make sure that, for instance, in Chittenden County, there's some farmers who are immigrants who grow vegetable types that are really prized by the Somali communities and the other immigrant communities in Vermont. And so we want to make sure we're making that available also. And then so the three components of the program, as I mentioned, large scale wholesale direct purchase by the food bank, and then grants to our partners, and then those specialty grants for specialty crops. So far this year as of July 1, we did draw down the initial $200,000 And as of between July 1 and October 6, we spent $507,000 on local produce, and that's been distributed. That came from 17 farms. And because of the amount of money, we didn't use any of that money for the grant program. We've used some of our general funding at the food bank for the grant program. We work mostly with larger 17 larger farms to spend that that $500,000, and that was a total of 327, 176 pounds of food that was purchased. I've got a list of farms if people

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: are interested in seeing that. And when you say the grant program, you mean grants to your partner organization?

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: Grants to our partner organizations who then purchase Vermont grown food from Vermont growers and distribute that at no charge. So in addition to that $500,000, the food bank also has a budget for this program. And since July 1 through today, basically, we've spent about really close to $900,000 We have another $400,000 in purchases under contract. So one of the things, one of the handouts that I listed, there's two handouts. One is for the food banks, the one on top. Food banks request for budget adjustment. As you might recall last year when we talked about this program, the food bank's request was $2,000,000 and we have a clear path to being able to spend that much money. And the legislature funded half 1,000,000. So we're gonna go and budget adjustment and see if we can convince people to invest another $1,500,000 in the program. Because kind of late in the year, right? We've got the growing season just starting and just getting up to speed when the state's fiscal year ends. We do have a plan that would allow us to spend down that $1,500,000 assuming would get that in the budget adjustment. Between now and June. Between now and the June. Correct. And the second handout is the food banks FY '27 request, which is for $5,000,000.2000000 for Vermonters Feeding Vermonters, which is what's under the jurisdiction and of the interest of this committee, and then $2,000,000 for support for our local network. And that's kind of more other kinds of food, not Vermont grown food, and grants to support our partners, other needs, things like refrigeration and any kind of capital needs they have for their buildings. And then 1,000,000 to our responsive readiness program, which I think we've talked about before allows the food bank to integrate better with emergency management and be prepared really at all times for the kinds of natural and man made disasters that we've been seeing in the last few years. How

[Unidentified Committee Member]: much did you receive this year in

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: November in emergency funds? That was $250,000. And that was, I think the board made their decision on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and by Friday, all of that money had been distributed to food shelves. So that was a direct pass through all those dollars.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And that was, like, in, what, November? It was during the shutdown. Yeah. Yeah. During I know during the shutdown. So when the checks did come out November 2.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: That's right. It was with by, I think it was November 7 was the date that we got the money out. Wow. And then it was the seventeenth or so when they released the snap funds.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Well, thank you for being an organization that could handle that and flip it as fast as you did. Yeah. Because it helped people. You're welcome.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: Are meeting with, as we meet with the agency of agriculture, we're talking about perhaps trying to accelerate the drawdown, seeing as we've already spent the entire amount of the legislative appropriation. So they've been great to work with. And even we're not able to accelerate the drawdown, because we've already spent the money, we'll be easily able to invoice that throughout. I just think that there's a lot of opportunity here, both for Vermont farms and for our neighbors accessing that food. You know, this is one of the key provisions of the Vermont Food Security Roadmap is making sure that our agriculture community is strong and able to feed Vermonters. And I think this is a great investment by the state for not only supporting our farmers and giving them the opportunity to have some certainty and a fair price for their product, but also create new customers and Vermonters who might not otherwise be able to afford their food.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Interesting to see how those 17 farms. 17 farms. Yeah. How they're distributed geographically and across types of farms.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: Well, I can give you just some examples. So actually, Representative Burtt isn't here, but he's on the list. Apples. Apples, that was about $14,000 in purchases. Champlain Orchards and other, Chappelle's potatoes, Deep Root organic cooperative. That was about $61,000 we spent with them. And that's a lot of mixed vegetables from a number of different farms. They're great to work with. Evening Song Farm, Harlow Farm, about $22,000 Intervale Center, Jericho Settlers Farm, who's been a farm we've worked with both as a vendor and as a donor for many, many years. Some of the other bigger ones, Maple Meadow Farm, as you all know, big egg producer here in Vermont. We purchase all of our eggs from Maple Meadow Farm. Where? Addison County. Addison County. Thank you. Yeah. That was $137,000 Miller milk. We purchased milk and cream from Miller and Sam Maasnow's farm also. Just some examples. So we do actually make an effort to be geographically diverse also and hit farms in different parts of the state.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Kingdom potatoes. That would be a Matt Leanne over Yes. Higgsaw.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: He's on the list too.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: So that was about Yeah.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: $62,000 we spent with him.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Alright. That that was I helped him after '23 and '24, I'm sure. Representative Brian. John,

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: how do you agree on

[Unidentified Committee Member]: a price with these, say, 17 farms? Is it what they're getting from canna firms or food hubs or whatever?

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: Yeah. We negotiate, and we negotiate for a fair wholesale price. So we are looking at comparables, they're getting in markets, what they're getting from other wholesale clients. We don't try and kind of use our leverage as a nonprofit to get a lower price because we think it's really important, especially with local food, to make sure that our farmers are getting the fair value for their crops.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: And they all have capacity to say, yeah, this is great.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: That's right. And some of them actually, over the years, have increased their capacity. Old lapping child farm in particular is they grow sweet potatoes exclusively. We buy a lot of sweet potatoes from them, and they have increased their capacity over the years because they know that we're going to be a consistent customer. We're going to be paying a consistent price. Yeah.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: They make great sweet potatoes. They do. Where are they? I take them. Grow them. Yep. Where are they? Pollet? Pollet. Yep. Yep. Valley. Valley. Yeah. Other questions? Anything else, John?

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: I think that's it really for right now.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: If you could send Patricia the I will do that.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: Yeah, we'll close them. And we would really like to come in at another time. Love to give you this update on where we are, but also talk more about our asks for the coming year and also the food security roadmap. And maybe we've got other folks who are part of the roadmap here too talk about the roadmaps agenda for this coming up year.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah, I have that on a list of things to try and schedule sometime in the next few weeks. Is that and we'll have Patricia coordinate that. But is that something that would be a good, from your standpoint, a good thing to come in even next week? Or would you like a little more time to

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: I think maybe a little more time next week.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Could whenever.

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: We can make it work. If you have time, we will make it work. While

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: we do have time before we start getting bills that we may want to focus on, might make sense. We'd love to

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: do that because there are some changes in the legislative priorities for this coming up here. Who's the best contact for that? Okay. Amy, thank you.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Do we send a letter to approves during the BAA of similarly what our request went? Yeah, historically, we've been asked to do that. I'm not entirely sure this year what the procedure's gonna be. Appropriations has already met in December, which is not the way things usually work, to start the work on the BAA. And I don't know, partly because there's The finances are a little different this year. I'm not sure what we're going be at. We can certainly weigh in regardless of whether we're asked to

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: expect. And for a reminder, the committee did in your budget bill, your budget memo last year support the entire 2,000,000 appropriations we're getting What

[Unidentified Committee Member]: was your BAA ask?

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: It's $1,500,000 The balance. The balance. Essentially, yeah.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Right, because you get funded last year. And that was the $500,000 that was funded was one time Correct. All right. Well, John, thank you. So we'll look for these on our website, and we'll plan to have you back in shortly in

[John Sales, CEO, Vermont Foodbank]: That'd be great. Various week would be fine if you have time.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Okay. We are ready to do it. Good to know. So we're gonna be back here at one Go break for lunch, we're gonna be back at one for a brief committee session before we have to be back on the floor to the state of the state address. And then there is some, I think, some floor activity So on the we will be back in the committee at the end of the day. So that's the rest of the day. I'm gonna pass around, if you would just everyone take a look at this draft of the updated committee chart, make sure your name is spelled correctly, or as you want it to be spelled, I guess. And then when it gets back to the end, we'll not sure. But that's how I want it. Well, maybe you could change 28 since there's two Johns. Oh, that's okay. Well, that's already Yeah. Yeah. That's old news.

[Unidentified Committee Member]: Yeah. Well, they're not directly still. Okay.