Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: All right, so welcome to the Food Security Coalition, and thank you for your patience. We have a presentation, I think it's on our webpage and also up in the screen. So I'm going to turn it over to you, Becca.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Thank you so much for having me. I'm Deco Warren. I manage the Vermont Food Security Coalition. I live in Heartland. And I'm excited to be here with you all today to talk about our 2026 policy slate request for the Food Security Coalition. So what I planned to do today was just remind us of our coalition's work and the document, the Food Security Roadmap to 2035 that guides us, take some time to just reflect on what we've achieved so far with your partnership, and then go over our twenty twenty six policy requests and field any questions. And I'll be the lead presenter, but I have in the room some coalition members. And one great thing about our coalition is our strength across sectors. And so if there are questions that I could or could not answer, I will call on my colleagues here. Procedural question, Chargaravy, should we have them state their names now?

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: No, when the time comes, I And in fact, if it gets to the point where it would be helpful, we could have other people pull up a chair down at that end of the table.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: So just a reminder that we are guided by the Food Security Roadmap to 2035. Food security for everyone in Vermont is the destination that we're focused on as a coalition, and that will be the day when everyone in Vermont has all the food that they need every day. Safe, sufficient, nutritious food, physical access to the food, social access to the food, and economic access to the food. And the Food Security Roadmap is our guide to that day. It's a focused area of the agriculture and food system strategic plan. And it is also reflected in multiple other state plans. So the need for and focus on holistic food security in the state has been recognized in the Climate Action Plan, the Governor's Report on the Future of Agriculture, the State Health Improvement Plan, the current draft Vermont Conservation Plan Framework Report. And so the roadmap sets out some goals that we're headed toward by 2035 and these are that communities have the tools to support food security for their members, that Vermont farms have the resources to be resilient, and that government ensures food security for all in Vermont. And this is also the goals of our coalition, and often I think you know that when we meet as a coalition, we sometimes and often take the time to just picture New Year's Day of 2036, and I'm going to have us all just internally picture this for a second. Just picture something that will be different in your community that you serve on New Year's Day of two thousand thirty six when farms have all the resources they need to be resilient. And just the relief it's going to be to know that there are producers in your community who are going to be able to continue to produce food for their neighbors in the way that they so deeply wish to do so. So that's really what guides us. We have seven coalition members at this time. This year we're opening our membership and ally structures to get more partners. These are our members. You've heard from many of us. So Hunger Free Vermont and NOFA, the Food Bank, the Intervale Center, Feeding the Valley Alliance, the Sustainable Jobs Fund, and the Land Access and Opportunity Board. We have about 30 staff from these organizations involved in our coalition work. We work very closely together, and our policy slate that I'm going to be talking about today is a collective effort that we determine by consensus. And she's not moving forward. So as I said, I just wanted to take this moment to pause and say thank you and really celebrate the work of your committee. You were, this is my opinion, very uniquely situated in the crossroads of all the food security concerns, and you've all, as a coalition, really appreciated thoughtful work and your partnership on these issues. I really notice your advocacy for the connection between our thriving farms and our food security and your knowledge that our food security depends on a vibrant agricultural sector. And I should really deeply appreciate that. And just going to quickly remind us of some of the things that we've been able to progress on. Funding for the Vermont Food Bank's network of food shelves, base funding for Vermont two eleven is something that we were able to achieve, changing our emergency planning statutes to include food considerations, funding for community based resiliency work that the Land Access and Opportunity Board are doing, our farm security fund, the Farm and Forest Operations Security Special Fund, establishing Vermonters feeding Vermonters and funding it, funding the Land Access and Opportunity Board, supporting the crop cash plus and farm share. I mean, it's really just an exhaustive list, expanding tax credits for low income filers during the federal government shutdown, ensuring that SNAP payments for our neighbors were funded, providing state funds to the Vermont Food Bank's network of food shelves so that neighbors in need during that time could have the resources to feed themselves and their families. Covering SNAP discretionary months. This is a little bit of a wonky item. I don't want to dive too deeply into, but the takeaway here is the legislature directed the administration to use these discretionary months and that has bought us some buffer time against the recent changes to SNAP. But that was not the original purpose, but that is an effect of this act. Sponsorship support for the family childcare homes and of course, five years of universal school meals. And I'm sorry, Representative Nelson isn't here. Was very deeply moved by his more remarks the other day celebrating that milestone. So I mentioned the coalition members work very closely together and we create our policy recommendations and requests together using consensus. I'm going to review these, given our we have till two, Cherturfee? Yeah,

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: So can go yeah. Okay.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: So I'll just intend to review these at a high level and take questions to reach the correct level of detail. So I'll answer questions, I'll follow on colleagues in the room. And then, of course, I hope it goes without saying, we are always happy and at your disposal to come in and dive more deeply into any topic. So we've tidied stuff up into three categories. So first, we're really recommending some steps to maximize the federal funding for Vermont using strategic state investments. So in July, President Trump signed into law the Budget Reconciliation Package, HR1. It's marked the largest ever cut to our nation's most effective federal nutrition program, the SNAP program, which we call also Three Squares Vermont, tend to use it interchangeably. So for the history of this program, the state and federal governments have equally shared the cost to administer Three Squares Vermont or Vermonters. That's the cost to enroll, administrate this very complicated and beneficial program. So HR1 made changes to this administrative funding structure, and beginning in October 1 of this calendar year, the federal government will reduce its share, its contribution, we might say, of the administrative cost from 50% to 25%. In order to meet the administrative needs for the SNAP program, Vermont will then be responsible for 75% of the total administrative cost. So there's a difference between the fiscal calendars of the federal and the state government. And so there's some math. For this year, we're advising that the state of Vermont appropriate an additional $6,300,000 to ensure continued administration of the SNAP program.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: Can you use the term administration or administrative costs? Yes. Does that include the actual food

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: It does not include the SNAP and please raise your hand if I get over my skis here. So SNAP, if I enroll in SNAP, I receive support for my grocery budget in the form of funds on an EBT card. That's not what this is. This is the cost to the state, to the Department of Children and Families, to run the administrative side of SNAP, which includes enrollment, just paperwork. I would say everything that falls under paperwork.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Thank you. You seem to remember when the bill search passed, the reconciliation bill, we were hearing an $8,000,000 figure?

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Yes, so that's the difference between the state and federal calendar. Do I have that on slide? I don't. Is it $8,000,000 from It disappeared? Oh, here we go. Okay, so this slide outlines it. So I mentioned that the changes in HR1 related to the administrative costs will start on October 1, but our state fiscal year starts earlier and then will end earlier than the fiscal year for the feds. So we'll catch up. Up maybe is an unfortunate term, we'll catch up in the calendar year 2027. And at that point, we will need to plan for $8,400,000 in administrative support to meet our new obligation from the Feds of 75% of the cost. But for this fiscal year, it's 6.3. And this slide up here emphasizes some pieces just of how much money that is spent directly into our food system over twelve months, thanks to the SNAP program, the importance of maintaining this level of administrative coverage in order to maintain our low error rate, and ensuring effective delivery of three squares so that our neighbors can get support with groceries that they need. When

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: we met in November, we took some testimony on this, and I think just talked a little bit about the low payment error rate that you've got highlighted in this bullet there and how Vermont was one of the handful of states, single digits, I think, that had a low significantly or sufficiently low error rate that we weren't paying more, and that it would be important to try and maintain that because the cost would be much bigger than any of the numbers on the screen. I'm wondering whether anybody has been talking about investing anything upfront to help ensure that anything beyond what we see here, to help ensure that we continue to stay in that safe zone.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Well, I think this segues well into our next item. There may be

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: We did not chat ahead of time.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Yes. And there may be other additional answers to your question, and I'll go over this next recommendation that we have. And then I'll just check with Autumn and Amy to see if I'm missing anything. So we're recommending that in order to support the best outcomes for everyone in Vermont, we need to appropriate $5,750,000 this coming fiscal year to service providing organizations to expand capacity for benefit assisters. So as the effects of these federal changes to SNAP and Medicaid also roll out across the nation in Vermont, it's essential that we ensure that all eligible people are able to stay enrolled or be enrolled correctly in these important benefit programs? And this is related to the error rate question in that we want to make sure that people are enrolling correctly, able to stay up to date with the paperwork. A big part of HR1 is just what we might call additional paperwork requirements. And benefit assister is already a role that exists in this state. You can be trained by Vermont Department of Health Access to become a benefit assister. We've been working with a fairly large group of service providing organizations across the state who work already in relationship with Vermonters' various roles and pulled together this sum that this group has agreed is the amount that we need in order to train benefit assisters and have enough people basically out in the community ensuring that Vermonters are getting the full benefit of these federal programs, so again, maximizing this federal funding. I believe this is closely related to the error rate because the paperwork is so complicated that it's very helpful to have someone who's trained help you fill it out.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: It should be not just SNAP eligibility, but Medicaid?

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: All the service providing entities who've organized for this request have agreed to provide services for both Medicaid and SNAP. I think we don't have the time right now for me to go into why Medicaid is also so key, but I know that we would be eager to come and talk more in detail about this proposal.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Can you talk a little bit more about how you arrived at that valid figure, what that gets us?

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Yeah, so we have convened over the past several months, casting quite a wide net to invite anyone who provides services of this type already or is interested in providing services to their, what would you say, clients, adding to add SNAP or add Medicaid assistance to their clientele. And we've said, who sees this need, wants to be able to provide more support for benefit enrollment, Please come and be part of this conversation. I had multiple conversations about it, and then basically had a giant spreadsheet. And people said, I want to train an additional half time staff member to provide this benefit assistance, and this is what it's going to cost my organization. Or we already have six people in the field, and want them to all call in and tell a new staff member, we need the support, and we want to train that person, and this is the cost. So when we started this, to be frank, we estimated it might be tens of millions of dollars to provide this service, but it is only 5.75, which is really incredible, and I think going to be a great bang for our buck.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Here's an Lipsky.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: So would a local food pantry likely Support and a sister? Or what are the organizations? For

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: my food banks? Let me call in my friend on the side here who could better remember me. Amy, would you be able to talk specifically about some examples? And

[Amy Shollenberger (Coalition advocate)]: I can also share with the committee later a handout that lists all the organizations that are involved. Amy Sheldon Burger for the record. So, there's about 15 service providing organizations that participated in really saying, yes, we commit to both SNAP and Medicaid. Most of them will also enroll in other benefit programs, but each of them do different things. Like, some of them are adult day centres, some of them are parent child centres, the CAP agencies. So these are not your food pantry, these are places that likely have paid staff that are doing this. Like

[Jed Lipsky (Clerk)]: Memorial Family

[Amy Shollenberger (Coalition advocate)]: Yes, like Memorial Family Center would be a local parent child center, and there's a specific training program that the staff would have to go through, one for SNAP, one for Medicaid, and then they would be able to basically provide case management style services to whoever needs the help. Thank you.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Is this a one time training appropriation or is there ongoing salary compensation?

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: I would say in this budget amount, there's both. We wanted to create a very robust system where people could be well trained, provide services. So well trained would be it also requires people to be the trainers, but is a training component. And then to have people who are on staff able to be consistently present building relationships with people who would be looking for this kind of support. And then the funds also include other types of support, such as the Vermont Language Justice Project is going to be engaged with doing translation of materials. And as Amy said, we do have handouts that can provide more detail, and it is a somewhat new concept, and so we would be really happy to come dive in more. These, I will say, are the two most complicated items in my perception on the policy slides. We just started right off the top there. Also, right, so then the third here is a request to appropriate $182,000 to

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: the agency

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: education child nutrition programs to support the sponsor organizations of the child and adult care food program. These funds would then be an incentive for these sponsor organizations to sponsor family and child care home providers. So in summary, this appropriation will mean that more family child care home providers will be able to draw down federal funding to provide free meals and snacks to all children in their care. I know you all know that ensuring very young children with access to nutritious meals and snacks in child care settings builds a brighter future for our state. I'm guessing low familiarity with the CACFP, so I'm just going to go slightly more in detail. So this is a federal child nutrition program that these specific types of child care home providers can participate in to receive a cash reimbursement. You can only, at the child care home, participate in the federal program if you have an agreement with a sponsoring organization, And so this is covering the administrative funding gap for those funding organizations. And the amount has been identified by the sponsor organizations as the need.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Doctor. Edelson. Thank you, Chairman.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: The new tax started a couple of years ago, zero point point zero four, wherever it's at, for payroll tax for child care. That doesn't cover that?

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: That's such a good question, and I'm going to call Autumn.

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: And they had a $2,000,000 surplus last year.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: I'm going to see if Autumn from Hunger Free, who's with us today, could oh, sorry, we're going see if Amy Sheldon can address this question, Director Nelson.

[Amy Shollenberger (Coalition advocate)]: Amy Sheldon, for the record, I'm the pitch hitter today. So there's two acronyms that are so similar. The payroll tax pays for CCFAP, which is the Child Care Financial Assistance Program, which is the subsidy that goes directly to families to help pay for child care. This is the Child and Adult Care Food Program, CACFP, it took me forever to get this straight. And this is a different federal program that goes to family childcare providers to help pay for maintenance and scents. So it's two different things, and in order to participate in CACFP, you basically need a fiscal sponsor. And of course, the government doesn't offer enough administrative cost for their fiscal sponsor who needs to inspect these places and write a bunch of checks every year. So this is an incentive program to have more fiscal sponsors so we can have more childcare homes access this huge pot of federal money. This is a small bit that would open the door to lots of money to pay for food for our tittiness kids.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Who are these examples of sponsoring organizations?

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: I'm known for the record.

[Autumn (Hunger Free Vermont staff)]: There are three sponsoring organizations. It's brought from the action capstone and Winston Crowley Child Development.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Okay, so three of our five community action.

[Amy Shollenberger (Coalition advocate)]: Winston Crowley's. There

[Autumn (Hunger Free Vermont staff)]: used to be more,

[Amy Shollenberger (Coalition advocate)]: but as of in 2024,

[Autumn (Hunger Free Vermont staff)]: I mean, there are five, but two of them dropped out because it was just financially not possible for them to run.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: And do they cover, not cover the whole state, that's between

[Autumn (Hunger Free Vermont staff)]: three The three cover the whole state. So Capstone covers nine counties. And then I think Brock covers three and Winston County covers the rest.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yes, you do. So and then maybe back to Amy and just to follow-up on representative Nelson's question. This could not be funded, as the way the law is currently written anyway, we couldn't find funding here from any surplus there might be in another program such as the

[Amy Shollenberger (Coalition advocate)]: Anything is possible to worry about the standing. That would be a question for your appropriators. This money does run through the agency of education, and I believe the childcare money runs through DCF.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Are we currently appropriating anything to this?

[Amy Shollenberger (Coalition advocate)]: There was one time money last year of $150,000 We had asked for the same amount, 22,000, and they allocated $150,000 It runs through Rosie's Child Nutrition

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Program. Can you give us, if not right now at some point, an estimation? You said this would draw down a much larger amount of federal funding or equivalent of funding in terms of food, what that I amount

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: personally am very proud that I was able to describe the CACFP. Is a complex program that Autumn knows a ton about. Okay, so another request we have is just to fund the Land Access and Opportunity Board. So in fiscal year twenty twenty seven, we're asking to fully fund their operational costs and program funding. Then they also have a request in the Budget Adjustment Act. It's $1,000,000 to reinstate fiscal year 'twenty six grant programs. I don't think the LAOB has been in this committee yet this session to describe this. So the $1,000,000 in the BAA is there was money that was allocated to them, then it was removed from them, and now the governor is recommending reinstating, so we're in support of that. And then looking at their fiscal year ask to support their operations and programming. And just a reminder of what that LAOB is.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: You got it,

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: you it. Yeah. I believe last year in the budget, they got it put in at PACE funding, you know, to be in every year last year. The LA. Yeah. The LA will be in in the big in the big budget bill.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Can anybody help us with that? We

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: may not the with the so they may be in the budget in the governor's recommend when it's

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: comes out?

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: They were put in for base funding last year.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: We'll often hear requests from various parties and organizations for funding, even if it is in the base or is expected to be in the base. I think that's a safe thing to say. Okay. Yeah. Was also a Wasn't there a proposal to use some of the cannabis control revenue to fund the That was, The proposal too.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: So just to remind, does anyone need reminder that the Land Access and Opportunity Board is here to promote improvements in access to farmland and land and homeownership for Vermonters to continue to face barriers for land and homeownership? So they use their budget for their advisory powers that they have in statute and also their grant making powers. And I just want to speak personally and say that they're in our coalition. I've been watching their work and learning a lot from them. And I'm finding that they are really, in an incredible way, fulfilling their statutory powers in this way. It's amazing to be part of that. And then moving on to supporting local food security and Vermont farms and food producers. So for Vermonters feeding Vermonters, thank you all so much for your support of this grant program. The request for the Budget Adjustment Act is to fully fund Vermonters feeding Vermonters for the rest of fiscal year 'twenty six, so it's $1,500,000 to fulfill that need. And then for fiscal year twenty seven to allocate $2,000,000 for that grant program. And I'm assuming we don't need questions on this, but I'm happy to go into details.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Well, actually did hear from one of your coalition partners about this program the other day. Just before,

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: keep going. Okay. So also supporting our local food security, so looking at a request of $2,000,000 for the Vermont Food Bank to support their network food shelves and meal sites. So even with full support for Three Squares Vermont, there still is a gap for people across the state, and the state of Vermont can really lean into that and help to fill the need in our communities for the Vermont Food Bank's network partners to maintain support to our neighbors. And then also a request for their ready response work. So I think John probably covered this when he was in the other day. The food bank has filled a role of emergency food response during emergencies, in a very specific window when there are other entities, either state or federal, that aren't quite there on the ground. And this $1,000,000 will allow the food bank to really establish the systems to be ready for ready response as we face emergencies that impact our food access, but also as we saw this year, our water. Government shutdown. Another piece of example.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: You go on to this slide, Becky, I wanted to back up to LAOB. Oh, yeah. Just to be sure I heard you correctly, that the, just to the slide that had the BAA, yeah, we haven't spent any time really looking at the BAA in any detail. So do I understand that this million dollars was included in the governor's

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: In the governor's recommend, yes.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Okay, good, I'll do that, Nikki.

[Amy Shollenberger (Coalition advocate)]: Question?

[Nikki (Committee staff)]: Yes. So does that mean that anything else that you don't say it was included means it wasn't? So like on Vermantras Feeding Vermantras, the governor didn't put any money

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: That's a great question for me, and I hear a little bird saying that's correct.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Thank you, good clarifying question.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Okay. So also, so many thanks to you for your support of Nova Vermont's Crop Cash, Crop Cash Plus and Farm Share programs. This year we're recommending $500,000 to fully fund those programs and support both our low income shoppers and our farmers who love feeding each other and being fed. It's just a wonderful Vermont fact on the ground that this is a really important part of our state culture. And just really, all I have is excitement for many of us who are in the room will be watching at 03:00 when the S-sixty is on the floor. We're very excited that this bill to create the fund will be on the floor. Thank you so much for being advocates of this bill. And our appropriation request this year, as I think you know, is $20,000,000 which is the start of a long term investment in the success of Vermont farmers as they face our new weather realities and really look to continue to feed their neighbors. And then, this is our last item. The coalition is strongly in support of the Working Lands Enterprise Fund request this year to increase the base funding of the fund to 1,500,000 and then to supplement in fiscal year 'twenty seven with an additional $3,500,000 to address the backlog and the substantial demand we have for this incredible I think of it as a flagship investment program that we have in the state to increase jobs in the working landscape, help us develop our food system supply chain, building new markets. I was just thinking when I was coming up here today of some projects that I know of in my community that are funded by working lands and that really the innovative infrastructure producers have been able to put in by leveraging this fund. I'm excited with the idea that we could do some more investments this coming fiscal year. How did you come up

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: with a 3.5? It someone projected out because I know every year we hear how many applicants there are, how short they are. Got what they wanted, right? Yeah. The enormous amount.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: I think this is Jake's time show.

[Jake O'Brien]: So for the record, Jake O'Brien. So yeah, if you look back over the last four fiscal years, the average gap between funds awarded and requests is 3,400,000. And I can talk more when I come

[Rep. Richard Nelson (Ranking Member)]: in next week about how we, if you

[Jake O'Brien]: look at other programs, that number is even higher, but yeah, it was a sufficient amount to cover what we think is typically the gap in noble funds and what's the request.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: That's the summary. So on your committee page and shared with Patricia is a much shorter summary of this policy slate. You're already engaged in so much of it. And we are very happy to be working in partnership with you. And like I said, really happy to come in and dive more deeply into some of the pieces that are very complicated and somewhat new, such as the benefit assistor request and the SNAP administrative funding.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I wanted to check and see here. How long has the coalition been in existence?

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Yeah, thank you for asking. We released the roadmap in 2024, two years ago, and at that time this group of organizations that's in the coalition now have been involved with the very final part of making the roadmap and we started forming the coalition at that time. So we've been working in coalition for two years and have really formalized our agreements this past year.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: How often do you meet?

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: We have four committees. So we have an executive committee that meets quarterly, but then our other three committees meet every other week. Every other week? Yes. One of them is our advocacy committee, and so we meet frequently during the legislative session to discuss these items. And then we also have the fundraising committee and operations committee, which is sort of a governance group.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Are there other questions? Thank you all for coming in.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Thank you so much for giving us this time. Thank you

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: for putting the presentation together. And yeah, I I think that as we dig in, as we, as a committee, start to do our we'll be hearing from other organizations with some of the same requests for appropriations and then doing the rest of the budget work. If we have more questions or wanna tap into your expertise more on some of this, we'll let you know.

[Becca (Becky) Warren, Manager, Vermont Food Security Coalition]: Yeah, we'd love to be of help. And I just wanted to point out, I did mention at the end, Amy's, as you know, always in the building. And so if there's any time you need the expertise of anyone in the coalition, she's really your point person. Thank Thank you so