Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: So welcome back, Alan and others from MarketPlace, and we're really excited to have you back in and hear this year's update, or at least the first installment. I know we've got a lot to cover, so why don't we turn it over to you?

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Great. So for the record, Ellen Koehler, I'm the Executive Director at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, and here with Jake Barrow, our Farm Plate Director and Kelly Nauman, our Communications Director and Hannah Baxter, our Farm to Plate Network Manager and Jessica Pullen, who is our Farm to Plate Assistant. We've the team. So what we're going to do is, we've got a slide deck, I'm just going to talk just the first few, just remind us of the context of what is the Sustainable Jobs Fund and why is farm to plate at the Sustainable Jobs Fund. And then Jay's going to take it from there and really walk you through updates and we'll cover some trends, data, as well as what are the legislative asks or just the things to pay attention to this session related to agriculture and food. You have on your webpage our impact report for this year, and I also have a printout of the slide deck, so if you'd like hard copy, have them here, happy to share. But I thought I'd start with who is and what is the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. So we were created by an actual legislature in 1995, so through the years. And this is our statute. And what we do is we nurture the sustainable development of Vermont's economy. And specifically, we've been tasked with working in five economic sectors. So farm and food, forest products, renewable energy, green technologies, and waste abatement pollution, like that. So think compost is how we think about it. Basically supporting manufacturing in those sectors, but also the whole supply chain, really. And we were unlike the Department of Economic Development or Department of Labor or anybody else that works with businesses who have to be for everybody, and any type of industry, any type of scale, we get to focus. And in our focusing, we have developed a theory of change of how do we actually advance these sectors in a very proactive, intentional way. We take very much a developmental approach to the work that we do. In terms of the statute itself, they also wanted us to really look down the road, look out into the future of what are the trends, what are the opportunities for Vermont businesses in our sectors? And so that's where we take this development approach is, you can't just turn on a dime like we saw when the low grade wood market fell apart in 2015, for instance. It wasn't like everybody scrambled. It was like, we have to do something, but it's not like you can just bring that back on a dime. It takes time and effort and intention. And so that's really the purpose of our organization, is that we get to do that work in a supportive way with state government and with the legislature and all of our partners. So the organization itself, we have three main sector based programmatic areas, and really green technology and waste abatement pollution control really fits within these three because there is green technology that's part of food manufacturing, or is in the energy sector, or even in the forest sector. There's edger optimizers in sawmills use lasers. Those are forms of green technology. So we focus on these three main sectors. We take a network development approach where we bring together all of the key stakeholder organizations across the nonprofit, business, government, capital provider and educational institutions together in networks in these three areas. And then we also provide business assistance to these businesses, both early and growth stage companies through our business coaching program, start up businesses through our DeltaClimb Energy Accelerator and our Forest Business Accelerator that we are now running. And then we also do a lot of supply chain coordination. Jake will talk a little bit about the way in which we're working, for instance, right now with all six food hubs. And there's also a meat supply chain group within the farm to plate network. So we really try to bring industry members together. We do that with the forest industry, as you know, from coming to the summit every year, the entire supply chain is in the room. It may not be every actor in the supply chain, but the supply chain is represented. And so we really believe that bringing those folks across the supply chain, they're all part of the industry is that you understand that there's mutual benefit to each other. You have to pay attention to who else is in the business with you. So we have 14 staff. We have an 11 member board, it's laid out by statute. So either the Secretary of Ag or designee, so in this case, Secretary Tebbetts is on our board, and then the Secretary of Agency of Commerce, so in this case, it's Deputy Secretary Kate Brooks that's on our board. And then the governor gets to point one seat and he has appointed Savannah Haskell, who is the Executive Director of the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development, because workforce is a big part of our industries, things that we pay attention to, it's a good connection point to have somebody connected to the Department of Labor also on our board. And then we have eight independent members. It's a great group of people and so very lucky. So in terms of the job center as a whole, we are on a calendar year, so I pulled the data just for the state's fiscal year, just to give you a sense. In that twelve month period, we had about a $2,400,000 budget, And the biggest source of revenue for us are grants, but that's broken out between state foundation and federal grants. In that twelve month period, we happened to have very unusual, a very large portion of state grants in part because we had a lot of one time dollars flowing through us for specific projects that we were project managing, even though most of the money was put out to other entities. We get some funding every year from the Working Lands Enterprise Fund, which helps to support the Forest Innovation Summit. That is the sole source of that summit comes from the Working Lands Enterprise Fund, a for instance. But we raise a lot of foundation funds. We do have a couple of federal grants that luckily have not been canceled. So those are, you can see where our funds come from. And then on the expense side of things, like a lot of nonprofits, personnel is always the biggest, or even businesses, the personnel is usually the biggest portion of expenses. But we also have on the professional services, we utilize a lot of consultants. So for instance, you probably remember us talking about our independent grocers project that provides technical assistance training to independent grocery stores to try to source more local food. That's a consultant that we contract with to provide those types of services. So instead of us having a staff of 30 people, and I've got 10 business coaches that work with 22 or so businesses every year. So instead of having a staff of 30 or 40, we have a staff of 14 and then we utilize a lot of consultants to get the rest of the work done. On the expenses by initiative, farm to plate is our largest program, it's close to a million dollars. It fluctuates year to year, depending on whether or not we have projects that we're managing, like the beef on dairy project or the grocers project, for instance, tend to balloon the budget a little bit. Our core of just physically running the Farm to Plate initiative, the network and our core backbone services is probably what, 350,000, dollars 400,000, something like that a year. We also project manage the New England Feeding New England program, which is a six state initiative to try to strengthen the food system across the region, because that benefits our producers. And so in 2009, this committee and the House Summer Committee got together and they moved forward on this notion that, oh my gosh, agriculture development is in fact economic development, And needed to have a ten, the state needed to have a ten year strategic plan. And so they created the Farm to Plate Investment Program and they approached us because we have this other statute that we have the state connection and said, could the Jobs Fund do the Farm to Plate investment program? So that bill in 2009 got added to our statute, which is that three thirty there. So if you ever wanted to look at what that says, that's there. And it says in there, every year we need to come talk to you and tell you what's been going on. So that is why we are here. Angie is going to take it from there.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Burtt. Ellen

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: and Jake, can I let

[Rep. William "Will" Greer (Member)]: you know a lot about the other states in New England from your Yes? Are there similar organizations in the other 5,000,000 states that are not? No. So you're really a unicorn in that way.

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yep, and everybody else is very jealous.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: So for the record, Jake Claro, Farm Plate Director at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, and thanks again for having us. So just to continue on for what Ellen was sharing, give a little refresher on the farm to plate investment program and its history very briefly. So the statute was passed in 2009, and that tasked the jobs fund with creating the first ten year strategic plan. So this is the state's food system plan. And it asks us to fulfill, create a plan that could fulfill these three outcomes. So increasing economic development, and we're on the food and farm sector, create jobs in the food and farm economy, and then improve access to healthy local foods. So really two economic development focus outcomes and a food access component to that first plan. And we took this systems perspective in the planning process to try to lay out strategies and recommendations to do that. And then the legislature reauthorized the program in 2019, which then asked us to create a new ten year plan. So we're now on our second ten year plan as a state. And the outcomes of this were amended slightly. So those first two economic development outcomes were combined into one. So that first one now is to increase sustainable economic development and create jobs in Vermont's food and farm sector. We then added this, or the legislature added a resilience and environmental component in the second one to improve soils, water, and resiliency of the working landscape in the face of climate change. So giving us a little more directive around resiliency and climate issues. And then the third is to improve access to healthy local foods for all of Vermont, which is still having this food access and food security component to the plant. And you will find the fingerprint of the plan in other places as well. So the Governor's Commission on the Future of Ag used the plan as a basis to develop its recommendations. And so there are recommendations from the plan that really have representation in the administration through the Commission on the Future of Ag. I'll talk a little bit more about how the climate action plan and the process of creating that includes the agricultural sections, include recommendations that come from the plan, so there's alignment there, and also positioning food and agricultural development within our climate action plan. And then the Food Security Roadmap, which this committee has heard testimony from the Food Security Coalition, so you're familiar with that. And I'll talk also a little more about the relationships here of the coalition to farm to plate. So we really see the network as the body of implementation for this plan. And so the network represents over 300 farms, food businesses, technical service providers, institutions, nonprofits, capital providers, and government. And we really bring those groups of people together to deliberately implement strategies from the plan. And so groups of the network include the Vermont Food Security Coalition. So that's a network group, the Vermont Food Hub Collaborative, the retail grocers priority strategy team, agroforestry, equitable access to farmland and capital, CSA and healthcare, climate, soil, environment, more. Just to give you an idea, so we're really involved in all aspects of the food system and helping to coordinate and organize groups of people around these key issues. And then just what we as staff do, just to give an idea of how we're helping this process, as we call it, the backbone to this network. So we're mobilizing funding, administering grants, distributing funds to members and projects, providing project management to those projects, coordinating TA services to farms, food businesses, nonprofit partners. We're providing facilitation, advising, administrative support to groups. We're serving on state policy committees, including cross sector committees like the Climate Council's Ag and Ecosystem Subcommittee, Department of Health. My colleague Hannah is participating in a group for the state health improvement plan. So we're really trying to integrate, always trying to integrate the perspective of the plan and represent the food system in these other really important processes that connect to other sectors. And then also serving on grant committees and advisory boards, including Sodexo's Vermont First Advisory Board. So that advisory board advises Sodexo on their purchasing procurement of local, so we're impacting how they make decisions around that. Developing shared measurement, I'll talk a little bit more about this, but the local food count is an example of that, doing research and analysis. And we provide a lot of free communications to our members through the website, e news and Listservs. Any member can post news, events, job postings, which is very popular. And we're reaching also through just the e news alone, over 7,000 Vermonters. So we're also helping to share this, really share out about what people are doing in the food system to the general public. And so that's a resource we provide. And then we do networking and professional development. Our annual gathering is something we organize every year. We had it in Burke Mountain this past year, over 300 people typically now attend that.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Those are you, just in terms of network membership, do people Well, is there a cost to becoming part of the network? Then can anybody join any organization? Yeah, so there's no cost.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: And you are signing up as a representative of an organization. And because we are trying to promote cross sector relationships, we have members who exclusively in the food and farm sector, so to speak. And we've got different agencies that are staff that are members and representative in that.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I imagine that when you started out, had to get the word out, but then now are people still coming in?

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah, yeah. And particularly as staff turnovers happen, we're having to reintroduce, we're going through that process of reintroducing the network to new people, even at organizations that we might have longstanding relationships with. So first, I'm going to do some highlights of this past year, just how we're impacting these three outcome areas in the past year. And then I'll cover some key trends in these three areas and present some policy priorities and issues that we think are going to be important in this next year and beyond. So Ellen mentioned that we're working with the six major food hubs in the state under the name of the Vermont Food Hub Collaborative. So we are actively convening this group and supporting them with technical support, a lot of business coaching, business advising, to improve coordination, operations, their financial sustainability, and their actual improving services to farms and food producers and customers. And so the six members are the Addison County Relocalization Network in Middlebury, CAE in Hardwick, Food Connects in Brattleboro, Fremont Farming School in Newport, Tanner Vail Center in Burlington, and the Vermont Farmers Food Center in Rutland. And why the food hubs matter, and we really think that support is important, is that they are So the image there on the right is presenting the distribution network that they delivering throughout the state and also into New Hampshire and Massachusetts. So this really is a network of food hubs that covers the state and provides this is representative too of providing market access to small and mid scale producers. And in an ever increasingly consolidated marketplace, this type of access is really critical for the ability of farms to sell their products and get into schools and grocery stores. And so they are selling or distributing at least $19,000,000 in local and regional product. They're working with over three thirty farms and food producers, over five fifty customers. And they also, the food hubs collectively employ 50 people representing a really wide range of occupations. And so that's further helping to support rural economies and communities. So that's some work that we've been doing with the hubs, and there'll be more to come in this next year as well. We have also been involved in what we call a beef on dairy project, which for some might sound like maybe an oddity of terms coming together. Nationally, the beef industry has been in a major supply contraction. So drought has really impacted the Midwest and producers out there. And so there's a lot of supply still, or a lot demand for beef nationally, and historically some of the smallest herd size numbers nationally that we've ever seen since going back to the 1950s. And so this has been a project to develop a breeding program to enhance the value of dairy beef crosses and provide premium value for dairy producers or beef producers sell into this marketplace that has high demand. And a new enterprise has launched this initiative, Vermont Cattlemen, and there's, in the past year, seven farms that received TA for breeding infrastructure, financial planning, marketing, and cost of production analysis. And we're going to have some publicly available materials ready soon for any dairy or beef producer who's interested in this program. So futures calculator for production costs, breeding plans and nutritional protocols, cut sheet calculations for direct to consumer marketing. And they have also now, Vermont, Caledonia and USDA are launching a five year study to further improve upon this program. So there's also been just a general lack of sound protocols and programming around improving genetics of beef animals so that beef quality is meeting buyer expectations and bringing more value to those animals, and so creating additional revenue and profitability for those in the industry. And we've also been doing quite a bit with retail supply chain initiatives, and over 120 people in the last year representing 100 farms and food businesses, which includes distributors and retailers, have participated in different sorts of trainings and technical assistance. So main street market in Richford, which is owned by the hospital in that area, they have been receiving a lot of direct technical assistance to help improve their operations. And we're seeing that as an emerging area of need too, with a lot of community grocery stores where towns are purchasing buildings and leasing to operators and needing a lot of help in operating those stores effectively. It's a big undertaking and requires a different set of skills that maybe people coming in don't have. And those stores, too, provide a lot of access for local producers, so their viability is important to providing access for local foods. And so the types of program have varied. We've done some farmers as retailers trainings as well. So providing, a lot of farms have shifted their direct sales to farm stands and expanded, and not just selling their products, but bringing in additional inventory. And they're doing that though, again, without maybe understanding the art and science of retail, it differs quite a bit from, say, selling at a farmer's market. So that's been a big portion of this type of training. And then also, the image on the bottom is Upper Valley Produce. So we've also been bringing distributors, buyers, and producers together to understand the business of one another and to form stronger relationships there and really help producers understand how to get into that system, how to be successful, how to speak to a distributor or how to select for things like that, because there's a lot of pitfalls if you make the wrong choices or you don't understand the terms and conditions that you may be under when working with a distributor. So that's kind of just a taste of some of the work that we've been doing in that.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: How does a store retailer, independent retailer receive assistance with the process for anybody who asks, is it competitive?

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: It's not competitive, it's capacity constrained. But there's initial inquiry, there might be a site visit to understand the store dynamics and get a sense for what help is actually needed. And then sometimes that might lead to connecting that store with another technical assistance service that we're not providing. It might, depending on the need, trigger, okay, we can work together and here's what we can offer. So working within our capacity constraints and just making some decisions about fit, but generally trying to at least have that initial meeting or have some type of exchange to understand the need, and then see if there are some ways we can connect resources to that.

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: And there are workshops.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah, and then there broadly are openly available workshops for stores. So there was a three part series, which is the next slide. So there was a three part online series that anyone could sign up for. It was virtual, delivered by a nationally renowned retail expert. And so we saw through that, was 80 people who participated over a three part series. There's probably 35 to 40 stores that sent representatives. Honey Mountain Co op actually was going through a major staff transition, so they sent, I think, 10 to 11 of new staff to it. And it really provided them with sound like retail fundamentals. And those trainings too are really oriented to trying to consider how will Snap changes impact your business and any change, maybe income or your customers, and how do you adjust to that, what are some strategies you can use around pricing, things of that nature. So yeah, there's different entry points that we can provide. The direct technical assistance is more limited to, we're probably looking at eight to 12 sort of what we're aiming for with that. Yeah, funding dependent. And so this testimonial is just from the general manager at Maple Windham. We're speaking to a farm that has expanded their retail offerings. Abby, And the GM, realizing that she was doing a lot of things that she thought were good for their customers and actually weren't. And just through attending this three part series and implementing changes, they were starting to see sales increases. And even increases for things that they thought were these low performers were actually, depending on where you're placing it on the shelf and what products you're accompanying it with, can really change the customer experience and increase sales. So it's that type of the art and science around retail that we're trying to implement and professionalize for both these farm stand operations plus independent grocers and retailers in

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: the state. Thank you, Brian. Thanks. Jake, if a channel and

[Rep. William "Will" Greer (Member)]: say is about to lose its general store or wants to bring back, can you be contacted as almost a consultant or mediator type to say, what are

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: our options here? Yeah, so one is Preservation Trust Vermont has done a lot around this, And we're hoping to get funding in partnership with Preservation Trust Vermont to do more of this. So where they would be creating more of a toolkit that would help bring towns through that process and give examples, how to actually acquire the store and set up the legal structure and all those things. And then we're hoping to do a needs assessment of operationally, what do those stores need and then deliver dedicated technical service to them. Because there's a lot of dynamics in those cases too, where you've got a nonprofit board with no retail experience that maybe is providing certain demands or giving advice to the store owner, who they're leasing the store to. So there's a lot of dynamics there that there's room for improvement and the sustainability of these new arrangements is really dependent on running the retail operation effectively. There's 11 of these community supported general stores in the

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: state now, and so part of me describing is to document what is the way that if you're going to lose your general store, you're asking a little bit about just like can you get some technical assistance to somebody that's currently running a general store, so there might be, And if it's going to go out, Reservation Trust has really innovated this special community supported enterprise model that allows the town purchase or the community members to raise the money to buy the building. And then they do a search for an operator. They lease it to and then the operator runs the business part. But the board is community members that own the real estate, which helps the operator not have to have the real estate.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Right, yeah, there's an interesting dynamic there because then also the operator doesn't have equity. So there's lot of unique dynamics that are happening there. Yeah, and I think the other goal with dedicating more to those types of stores is that we don't know what their product mix is. There might be improvements and ways in which actually it can help the store to diversify and bring in more local products. And there's ways in which those stores right now, through their existing distributor relationships, some of them are literally sometimes going to a grocery store and purchasing product to sell because the distributor price, they are on the lowest rung in terms of pricing and the type of deals that they can get. There's Sometimes they wanted to go there, right? Yeah. So there's connections potentially here too with work with the food hubs and increasing their sales to these types of stores. So a couple of things in ways in which we've been working on resilience. So I mentioned, I've served on the Agriculture and Ecosystem Subcommittee, which has included other agricultural stakeholders and provides in the So the Climate Action Plan was recently updated. Our task was to submit recommendations to be approved by the climate council. And so 64% of the priority actions that were advanced by the subcommittee are actually derived from the food system, agriculture and food systems strategic plan. And we did that through not just my representation, but really bringing input and advocacy from the network to help craft what those recommendations are, and really ensure that agriculture and food is represented strongly in the plan, and that we have a way in which to open doors to new resources or leverage funding that we wouldn't have access to and that, say, people in the climate or natural resources space do. We're seeing from this that ANR's Climate Action Office staff are reaching out to food system stakeholders about new funding opportunities and partnerships. And so we think there's a lot of challenges around climate policy in general, which we're definitely aware of, but we think it's important that if there is a climate action plan, agriculture is represented in the right ways and that it's an avenue that we could utilize to bring more resources to food and agriculture in the future. And also, the Vermont Resilience Implementation Strategy has also adopted some of these recommendations. And that's a joint effort between the governor and the treasurer. So there's an administrative component there that we think is important. And there's two particular strategies that have this tier one high urgency, high readiness in the strategy. And that's food system supply chain infrastructure investment. And the Farm and Forest Emergency Relief Fund is identified as a tier one recommendation. So we know this committee has been supportive of S-sixty and the relief fund, but if there's colleagues who maybe look at things through more of this climate resilience lens, just know that it is represented in both the Climate Action Plan and the Resilience Implementation Strategy. So it's important for agriculture, it's important for our resilience, and it's a part of our climate priorities as well.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I'm just going to make a note here, a verbal note for committee to get some more information on the resilience implementation strategy. Yeah, I think that'd be fantastic.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: And there are many other recommendations in the strategy that very strongly align with priorities that have been expressed in the strategic plan and just in general by people in agriculture. So it's encouraging to us that it's represented. And also coming from the treasurer's office is that there's an orientation towards how do we create financial or funding mechanisms to do those things. So I think that brings some additional ideas to the table, for sure. And then just on the food access side, mentioning that we're a member of the Food Security Coalition and it is also a group of the Farm to Plate Network. So the coalition was very successful last year in advancing some key policy priorities. So funding for NOPA's Crop Cache and Farm Share program, funding for the feeding Vermonters program, and base funding for the Land Access and Opportunity Board. And lastly, just on highlights, through our CSA and healthcare community practice, the group was awarded a by state primary care association, a food access and healthcare network grant, looking at how to scale food and medicine programs in the state. So Addison County Relocalization Network runs a strong food and medicine program, as does the Vermont Farmers Food Center. So they were strong and active participants in this process. And so some recommendations came forth as to how to advance more of these programs statewide and at scale. And there's a task force that now my colleague Hannah is on that will hopefully be developing some concrete recommendations for next year, policy recommendations as to how to bring more to scaling programs in the state. And there's research that is done nationally and also been applied to states that indicates fully scaled food and medicine programs and medically tailored nutrition interventions could save Vermont $53,000,000 annually in healthcare expenditures. So this is not small potatoes. And the full report and findings are on our website, so you can take a deeper dive into that. We're just really excited about that connection.

[Rep. Jed Lipsky (Clerk)]: Is that it awesome?

[Unidentified committee member]: Yeah, I attended a workshop conference this summer that was on food is medicine and talking about I think it was Massachusetts, but it might have been another New England state. They actually were having doctors would prescribe certain produce. And like, you could literally go to the doctor, you know, instead of going to the pharmacy and taking pills, you would go and buy broccoli and these other things. And they actually found that there was a number associated, I think it was 10 or 15% reduction in hospitalization costs for people that were doing this, which just is so infinitely sensible. And we need to do that in promoting.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah. Well, so stay tuned. Yeah, really.

[Unidentified committee member]: If you guys have some sample legislation or something, I

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: would love to see that.

[Rep. William "Will" Greer (Member)]: That's great

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: to hear. Yes, we will definitely keep that in mind. Think that's our goal, is to work towards some more concrete proposals. And now this report really lays out conceptually what's needed in order to bring forth those types of initiatives.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Actually, was approached by a representative of an organization that would like to come into the committee and talk about this topic. Oh, I wish you would be

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: interested in that.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Yeah, and I Can you make a note of that? Because I said yes, and it was a week ago, and now I don't remember what happened to that. It was the, I think, the Heart Association.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Okay, great, yeah. So shifting now to key trends, legislative priorities across these three outcome areas. So, some things that we're tracking and paying attention to that we think is important to communicate, and then how that translates to some legislative issues. So yeah, I wanted to start with on the economy side, and just we continually wanna reinforce this message that the food system and also agriculture and food manufacturing are huge contributors to the Vermont economy and provide a substantial amount of economic activity output for the state. And so looking just at production and processing, so agriculture, food and beverage manufacturing, the aggregate output is $5,700,000,000 And then Farm Credit East, they have done some analysis and looked at multiplier effects of that activity. So that would be the direct sales of products, that would be the purchases of agricultural and food manufacturing businesses with other businesses, and then it would also be the wage expenditures of employees of those businesses in the economy. So if you add that into the output, you're looking at $8,900,000,000 just from agriculture and food and bath manufacturing. With no multipliers across the full food system, it's about 12.9, almost $13,000,000,000 With those multipliers, you'll get almost 22,000,000,000 of economic output and activity. Food and agriculture is a significant part and important part of Vermont's economy. And then that translates real impacts of unemployment. So we like to look at this as across the board, like how many people are employed, involved in the food system from farm inputs to hired labor, manufacturing, all the way to retail. And this also includes, there's some small numbers for community food service regulatory, and there's also some sole proprietors that are listed as engaged in fishing. So we include that as well. And so since 2009, there's been a 10% increase in employment. So it's almost 4,000 people in total. And that's almost 21% of total Vermont employment. And that counts, that would be included in private and public sectors. So huge, huge impact on employment. And just to look at this a little differently, and also, I think, convey that there's a lot of people involved directly in agriculture as well. So farm operators hired farm labor, they're 33% of that labor force, the food system labor force. And that's around 21,000 people are still directly employed and working in farming in some way in Vermont. So not a small number of people that have that direct relationship. And just to give a sense of how some of the food manufacturing breaks out by different types of manufacturing, dairy is still the predominant employer in food manufacturing, but there's other food manufacturing, which would include maple, bakeries and tortilla, breweries, sugar and confectionery are the top five. And then there's an assortment of other that follow that. So also just a very diverse, we have a very diverse food manufacturing industry as well. Our employees of, where does manufacturing begin in

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: the dairy industry and in foreign labor, and so at the processing plants, Yeah,

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: so this would be any business or facility that their primary income is from that processing activity.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Essentially, I'm thinking, once it leaves the farm and arrives at its next destination, that would be included in this?

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yep, and it might get a little confusing around how cheese is classified for, say, a farmstead cheese producer. So there may be some gray areas in these towns for dairy in particular. And then, in terms of local food purchasing in the state of Vermont, we've been tracking this all the way back to 2010. We've developed this unique methodology to actually do this, which now all of the other New England states are doing, and they're doing it this year. Actually, all New England states this year are collecting this data. So we've gone from 4% of food purchases in the state were local. So any food purchasing happening in the state back in 2010, 4% of that was going to local food, to now 10% of purchases are local food that are happening within the state for food. And so that's one of every $10 spent is going towards a local food product. And our goal in the plan is to get to 25%. So we're ways off, but possible. And I think the other thing to know about this, the sort of getting twenty twenty five data, we're in the process right now. And what's unique about it is because it's happening across all the New England states, we hopefully will have a picture of some of the Vermont product sales in other New England states. So hopefully getting a better sense of how well are Vermont products selling in the region, and continuing to work with our New England partners to create mutually beneficial relationships around local purchasing and regional purchasing. Understandable, Brian?

[Rep. William "Will" Greer (Member)]: Jake, is the local statutory definition, or is it like if I buy Maine lobster, is that local?

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah, so our count is statutory

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: definition.

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: And then we modified, we've taken the Vermont definition and then turned it into a Massachusetts definition and a Maine definition. It's not official, right? Legislatures and the other places haven't done it, but we're using the Vermont way of defining local in Vermont to these other states, so that we're all using the same definitional base, it's just for their state.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Without going into the methodology, you've developed a process here or a system that you feel you're actually capturing as Yeah, best as absolutely, and

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: I think what also, in addition in this latest count, is we have access to Nielsen data, which is at the brand level. So it's scanned purchases at grocery grocery stores, yeah.

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: We'll- and big boxing. Have all that data.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: And that's where we'll have a sense of how our Vermont products selling in regional grocery stores, in addition to other data sources that are providing some of that information. So there's, yeah, I think some of those first slides are, there's a lot of strengths economically for sure and things I think to feel good about, but we also have concerns and looking at farm viability. So this is looking at the average net cash income based on how many gross sales a farm may have. And in this data, there's a clear sort of breakeven point at the $25,000 level. So as farms reach that level of sales, at least according to the census, they start to see on average a net cash income. And of course, you start to see some progressive jumps as they say, get to the $250,000 level, which is $166,000 of net cash income reported. And this isn't in any way a judgment of these smaller sales levels, but just to show that there is a clear progression. And we certainly would like to see more farms on the blue side of this graph. So that's just broadly in a general sense. And this is just a little closer look, taking out the higher sales range, to see that progression a little more. And even see that jump from here in the 50,000 to 99,000, as opposed to the 100,000 to roughly 250,000 level. There's a pretty big jump from 19 to 61,000 of gross income or net income. And we can also look at this. So a big thing that we're trying to do more is really look at individual industries and understand where the economic dynamics and needs of those industries. And you can see the average net cash income per farm category, dairy is far and away in a different class. So this also includes all payments, including government payments, cooperative dividends, agritourism. So there's a lot of different sources of income that are encompassed in this. And certainly, there's a lot of large dairies that skew the average. So again, this is an average, so there's going to be farms that are above and below these figures. But the other thing that I also want to emphasize here is that when you look at those last four, even five with poultry and eggs, these livestock categories, we do not have a livestock specialist in general providing technical assistance in the state. We've got pasture and grazing technical services, but that's really on the feed side, isn't necessarily on genetics and production expenses and marketing. And I think that those are industries that do need specialized TA. And it was an identified gap in the strategic plan when we released it, and it remains, we feel it's still a gap in the system.

[Rep. William "Will" Greer (Member)]: Jake, where's sugar in the fall?

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: It is in other crops. And so other crops includes maple operations, it also includes hay. And yeah, he broke that out, maple would be, I think, performing much better than that 27,000 average. It's just the way that the census jams them together. So it covers a couple of different things, including hay operations. I missed it. Good bumper

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: sticker for you.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah, yeah. And I think, yeah, the other side of this point is like some of these other categories like vegetables, it's had people like Brian Cribinger for a long time helping oilseeds and grains. Heather Darby has done amazing work in that area. So where we have that technical assistance capacity, you see innovation, you see different types of crops emergence or crop selection emerging out of that or product innovation. And I think that does translate into helping our producers. So yeah, that is the other side of it too. So in terms legislative priorities, perhaps no surprise to this committee, on the economics, increasing base funding for working lands from one to 1,500,000, that has been a long time goal of the Working Lands Coalition and others to get to that 1,500,000.0 level. And then supplement that with 3,500,000.0 in one time funding. And working lands really is, it is the keystone economic development program that we have for ag and forestry at this point. Since its inception, almost 19,000,000, and then almost $31,000,000 leveraged in additional matching funds. And that supported 1,100 people, creating almost five forty jobs, or generating over $55,000,000 in sales. And I think that speaks to not only the program, but obviously the farm forestry operations that receive this funding are incredibly they use that money incredibly effectively, and it makes a difference. And then that funding gap, that $3,500,000 so if you look at the last four fiscal years, the average has been about 3,400,000.0 in terms of requests and what's been awarded. But there are other indicators that the demand and requests for this type of funding is much greater. So in fiscal year twenty twenty four, we had the ag development grant program for one year that focused on produce, meat, and maple. And there were almost $44,000,000 in requests for those funds and only $2,100,000 awarded. So there's certainly demand. And then two other things just on the economic related side, farm succession continues to be a critical issue. And pharma succession also implies a transfer of a business and continuing a business, transferring that to another generation. So the plan identified a need for six dedicated transfer planners, along with some dedicated legal expertise to steward the transfer pipeline. H386 was introduced last year to support succession planning and transfer. I think there are things in that bill that would need to change, but I think the principles of it in trying to find a way to support succession planning was great to see, and continuing to examine that and see ways that policy could support this process of transfer planning and succession. And then just to go to that point that I was making earlier, exploring the technical service capacity with extension and other partners, and really drilling into this gap around TA capacity for livestock, where there's no dedicated livestock specialists, both broadly and also any kind of specialization for beef, pork, small ruminants, poultry, which have their own unique needs.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Cina, are you collectively exploring this already? What would the legislature's role be?

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: I think that's something we need to explore a little more, and I think it's something that we're also interested in this committee, learning what it could do. So yeah, it hasn't happened yet, but we would like to advance this conversation and see where it goes. This may be a UVM exclusive kind of issue of how they can raise these funds and bring capacity. There may be legislative elements that could initiate or accelerate that. So we're kind of open to different possibilities around that.

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: If you're gonna have Dean Linda Proppey and Interim Director of Extension Chris Callahan, you can ask them about it. We're gonna meet with them about this because Jake gets really looked at the numbers at that more specific level and we're like, oh wow, that's an interesting correlation there. So we haven't talked with them specifically about it for a while and with the new dean in place and with Chris now running extension, think there's an opportunity to re raise this need because it hasn't gone away. And it really, in our view, it really should be that exemption as opposed to some other organization because it's just, I mean, having an army is the perfect example of what happens when you actually have somebody that's passionate about greens and about her dairy research and all that, it really matters, it really has a big effect.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Okay, good, we'll follow-up.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah, this, so recently I was in a meeting with some sheep producers and some extension folks who do grazing services. Those extension staff were saying, yeah, this is a gap for us. Because we're doing grazing plans, we're not doing genetic selection or the marketing of your products and what the market needs in terms of meat quality and things like that. So there's recognition, I think, there as well that that's a gap. So shifting to more the climate and resilience trends and priorities, these are figures that are pulled from the yet to be released climate assessment that UVM conducts. And when the climate assessment comes out, we'd love to help get authors, contributors of that to the committee as well, because there's a lot of insights that can be gleaned from that. And so they have a specific agriculture and food system section, but the trends are, we probably all recognize this, but they're very clear in that increasing annual average temperatures, almost three degrees Fahrenheit, 25% increase in annual precipitation since the 1900s, and then also almost a 50% increase in heavy precipitation days. The 3B hardiness zone has completely disappeared, and there's now a 6A zone that exists in Windsor. I joked to the Senate earlier today that I'm excited about that. Those are some new possibilities there in terms of what can be grown. So it's not all doom and gloom, there are some potentially benefits that we can utilize or take advantage of. And then also just these extreme precipitation events impact soil erosion and runoff in really extreme ways. So the July flooding delivered nearly half of the allowable annual phosphorus load to Lake Champlain in just one week. How do you plan for that? And how you address that? So the impacts are not just in terms of really threatening farm operations, but then there's further impacts that can come from that flooding event.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I don't want to go down a rabbit hole here, but just thinking about hardiness zones and wondering, for example, about our maple industry or even apples. Because you go not too far south and there is no maple industry.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah, so I'm glad you asked that question. Was sharing with Hannah earlier, actually, that I was surprised this could change in the climate assessment. But my reading of it actually is that they're projecting that the season will, in essence, and it has shifted, so it's gonna be earlier, but the time of the season, the length of the season is probably gonna stay the same. And they're not projecting actually, there will be some composition changes, but not as extreme as I was expecting. It was more optimistic about maple than I was initially going in thinking. There might be some yield, there can be yield impacts, like if it's warm in January, and depending on what happens during the summer, there and quality can also be impacted. So there are some, there's definitely impacts, but it wasn't as severe as I was anticipating. And also in terms of species migration, oak taking over what has traditionally been maple stands and things like that.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Representative Will Greer? Just quickly, Jake, so are the zones

[Rep. William "Will" Greer (Member)]: designated by the first, last freeze and first freeze? Because it certainly seems the oscillation we're getting in climate that a lot of the plants are actually more vulnerable in some ways, even though maybe three weeks disappear. I'm also looking to represent here,

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: you need to probably answer this more. But it's more based on a temperature range the zone is defined by. Can't recall off the top my head what those ranges are and how they vary, but that's generally what it's based around, like an average temperature range over a period of time. You

[Rep. Jed Lipsky (Clerk)]: can probably speak to it at same time. Yeah, it's a very good temperature, but I don't know quite how to get to the variability component. Three years be really looking at temperatures that are 3B and then the next three you're looking at four,

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: you know, so. Season to season, it could

[Rep. Jed Lipsky (Clerk)]: be a little different. And that's What length of time do they look and catch it like that?

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Exactly, and I think that is the tricky part of even if the zones have shifted, there is still a lot of variability. You get when a frost occurs, could be later than expected, could be earlier. So that is just in a changing climate, that introduces a lot of uncertainty. Even if technically you could be growing a 6A crop, you might not actually have in the season the right conditions to do that successfully, or you're going to carry a lot of risk in being able

[Rep. William "Will" Greer (Member)]: do Right, right, three good years of conditions, and then they're all killed.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Those are USDA determinants.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah, and I don't know, I can't remember the intervals that they update it and make changes to it.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Representative Lipsky. Jed, just for one

[Rep. Jed Lipsky (Clerk)]: positive report I heard in the last twenty four hours, this three day deep freeze we're gonna experience. The good news is there's a tick population that they Yogurt. Have some mortality due to this extreme Oh, Not as relevant in the

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: book. Yeah.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: And that's a whole another also, grab a bowl of pests and disease pressures, yep, that the climate assessment also touches. And just like we know that there's real impacts of these changes. So over the last three years, 4,000,000 in reported losses from flooding and drought alone for farms. Again,

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I don't need

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: to convince this committee, but this just speaks to the importance of need for the Farm and Forestry Special Operations security fund. Not only the passage as policy is really important, but getting some level of appropriation to it, because these trends, they are not going away, and we can build resiliency over time, but it is going to take time. And so having that security fund is essential. So looking at actual farmland trends, I just wanted to share something that I think is very germane to a lot of conversations that are happening in the legislature, not only in this committee. So generally, there's been decreases in farmland over time, so an almost 11% decrease since 'ninety seven. But the thing that I want to really drill into here, and again, encouraging the committee. So this is research from American Farmland Trust, and I think it'd be great to call some representatives in from that organization to get into the details of this. So they had previously released a report that projected farmland conversion, and that was just based on a model of assumptions. And now for Vermont, and they're gonna be doing this for other New England states soon, they actually looked at, they then looked at observed conversions in the state and saw, we're trying to compare how close are those observed conversions to what we had forecasted. And what they're seeing is that the observed conversion of farmland is outpacing what they had anticipated. And so there's two scenarios, business as usual, they are projecting potentially 41,000 acres of conversion and a runaway sprawl scenario, which would be almost 62,000 acres. And already they have observed 19,832 acres of conversion from 2016 to 2023. So that's 48% of that business as usual projection and 32% of the total runaway sprawl conversion rate. So we're already almost 50% away there on the business as usual case in these first seven years. And then, where were they seeing these conversion happening? Well, the straightforward answer is everywhere, every county. Chittenden was leading the way. And then the type of development that farmland's getting, where farmland conversion is happening, it is happening more in what they call low density residential areas. And this is where I think it'd be great to bring some AFT folks in the room to explain what low density residential actually is. There's a definition that I was like, I'm not even going to pace it up here. And then there's urban high density development. And so a lot of it is happening in lower intensity development areas, but there also is development happening in these medium and high intensity areas as well. And Vermont doesn't have as many of those medium and high density areas. So just the fact that it is happening there, I think, is cause for concern. And that gets to restoring the statewide municipal regulation exemptions for agriculture. And I think why this is such a hot button topic for ag groups is that the threats are real, these conversions are happening, and just continued erosion of protections for agriculture puts this land in threat. And once it's gone to development, it's gone forever. And I think, and I'm planning to come into the committee on Tuesday to speak more on specifics of this. I'll just say from the start, our priority is clear and consistent regulatory framework across municipalities and statewide is best for both farms and towns, and that a patchwork environment for farming would be confusing for both farmers and municipalities. And that patchwork environment, we think, would continue to lead to contention and acrimony. And we really think that these issues can be addressed in Title 24. We don't have to dig into the wraps and making changes there, the clarity and consistency can be provided with making changes to Title 24, which is where the municipal exemptions language is. And I'd say we're also hopeful that we're finding some consensus with league of cities and towns. We think there's a path forward to do that, that meets both the needs of towns and farmers.

[Rep. Jed Lipsky (Clerk)]: I just want to point out to spread along these lines, not necessarily to do with the municipal regulations, but it has to do with this Act 21, tier three lands. Samantha mentioned yesterday in testimony the LTC that the algorithm for tier three right now is 75% forested on either side of the road. Okay, so both sides of the road are forested, at least 75%, that's where the tier three lands, and I saw the maps specifically for Cabot, so when there's open farmland on your side of the road, it's not tier three. Guess what if you're in Act two fifty where it's forested, where are you gonna build? It's the farmlands, not tier three. Yeah. That to me is a Couldn't become a big problem. Yeah, I

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: think you're I know you're coming back in next week, and we'll probably see the same language of it. Just something to think about, or maybe you can I'm just gonna say it. You don't have to respond or even think about it. But does a patchwork So looking at the first bullet point, when we're thinking about what do we mean by a patchwork environment, would that also describe an environment where there might be in densely populated areas a different set of rules, municipality by municipality? So that's my I

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: think the answer would be it depends. I think primarily the language here, patchwork, is speaking to if municipalities have broad latitude to add regulations to agriculture, that's the biggest concern. And I think where the negotiation refinement is, can we get to a place where it is within a specific, say, high density, residentially zoned area, that's where the municipality has clear ability to exercise regulatory oversight on. So I think the aim is, I think we think we can get to that place where that's understood, it's very clear who's exempt and who might fall under. Recognize you're only speaking for yourself and part of book. Yeah. Climate resilience priorities, I already touched on this, and I think this committee doesn't really need to hear it more, maybe you do, just as encouragement, is that the Farm Forestry Operations Security Special Fund is hugely important for our state's resilience and the viability of farm forestry operations. Additionally, funding Land Access and Opportunity Board to for their operations and programs. So there's a base appropriation, but also a one time appropriation of $1,400,000 for their programs. Seeing that as an important aspect of land access and also housing. That's an important piece for those marginalized communities, that this is a big priority and important aspect resilience and equity in the state. And then we will have, there's a report that's going to be coming out in partnership with Intervale around alternative land ownership and farmland access. And there's potentially some policy implications and recommendations coming from that that relate to flexibility with conservation programs and easements for ownership and housing. There also may be some lending guideline reforms and incentives that would provide more flexibility for multi party purchases and operating loans as we see those types of arrangements arise more. And then shifting to the last areas improving access to healthy local foods for all Vermonters. So here is the household food insecurity in Vermont, this data from USDA, and the rate is increasing. We were past the pandemic era stimulus and enhancements to SNAP, Three Squares benefits. And I think the other thing to know about this is that this data, the USDA announces that they're no longer going to be reporting on it after this year. So we are engaged in conversations with how to develop statewide measurement for this. And there's always been a thought that this has been a metric with limitations for indicating food insecurity in the state. So we're interested in preserving the methods of this approach, but also expanding to understand better how food insecurity is experienced in the state over time. So even if the USDA comes back and reinstitutes this data collection, we still think it's important to have state based metrics that provide more insight geographically, demographically around food insecurity in the state.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: We are in the process of trying to, by the time next week we have our federal delegation in committee, and we're just coming up with a list of things to have them weigh in on or at least respond to. We can mention this. Yeah, great. And for what it's worth. Yeah, absolutely.

[Rep. William "Will" Greer (Member)]: And I mean, just to get so many statistics in here, but we've heard four out of ten Vermonters have food insecurity. And then I'm looking at this and I'm like, that doesn't jive.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah, so I can talk a little bit about it. So a lot of that data was COVID era, and it was coming from a sample that pre COVID would have experienced food insecurity at a higher rate than the sample that the USDA uses. So I think the thing to take away from that COVID era data is that it was communicating trends in food insecurity. We saw initial food insecurity rates spike through the pandemic. When stimulus became available, those numbers started to drop. And population tracked with the USDA data, but the rate was higher. And then as inflation increased, that population's food insecurity rate increased, as did the USDA reported food insecurity rate. And this also speaks to the differences that could come about when you have a more state specific measurement system. There's different ways that the USDA sampling may be missing populations or under reporting. So, in some ways, it's a methodological difference. It's the sample that those figures were coming from. But the trends are reliable in terms of what we could learn from that data and what we learned from this.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Recall we had Unger Fever mocked, which might have been three years ago now, and say, yeah, that number is not the number that we should be latching onto, and yet, I still hear it. I still hear anecdotally in the media. Yeah.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: And I think the other thing is, it's still one in ten households in Vermont, and that's not an acceptable number. Whether that's one in ten or two in ten, it is, that's still an unacceptably high rate for people to be experiencing food insecurity. This will make a little more sense in the next slide in terms of legislative priorities and appropriations, but just wanted to emphasize that total Three Squares SNAP benefits issued over time, last year, that's $151,000,000 And these are federal funds. So these are funds that the state has not had to contribute to. So that's a lot money and a lot of people who are receiving these benefits. And so when we're considering the federal changes that have been made to SNAP, this is where ensuring that we have sufficient administrative capacity to administer the program, and we have boots on the ground capacity to case manage and assist people who are eligible to get those benefits and to fill out forms and new reporting requirements accurately is really important. So both of these appropriations are essential to maximizing and leveraging federal funding that is still available and maintaining the low payment error rate. Payment error rate could be someone who's receiving where it's discovered they received more than what they should have, or it also includes that they received less than. And beginning 2028, states with an error rate at or above 6%, which I think is that language is very cool, will need to cover between so if you're at or above 6%, if the state is at or above 6%, they'll need to cover between 515% of the cost of direct SNAP benefits, which has never happened. And so that would conservatively equate to, that could be $7,600,000 that could be $22,700,000 of direct contributions that the state has to make to those SNAP benefits. And just to give you an idea, so the FY24 error rate was 5.13% and the ten year average for Vermont was 5.53%. So we have averaged below that rate, but now with new reporting requirements, having to file twice a year rather than once, there's just more opportunity for error. And so having the right capacity to administer the program becomes more essential. And that $6,300,000 also is because of new administrative cost share changes. So the state now is responsible for 75% of administrative costs rather than a fiftyfifty share with the federal government. So that's a have to have in our view of administering the program at the levels that we need to. And then the 5.75 is to make sure that we have technical services available for those who might be eligible for those benefits. And also, should say too that all of these are on the policy slate of the Food Security Coalition, which you've heard testimony from. So there's the 182,000 for the Child and Adult Care Food Program. So again, this would be cash reimbursement, a federal cash reimbursement for early family childcare providers for eligible meals and snacks. The food banks, 5,000,000, so $5,000,000 in total appropriations for FY27. And that's for Vermonters, feeding Vermonters, and also for Ready Response for food access in emergencies. A lot of burden and expectation has been put upon the food bank to respond in emergencies without adequate financial support. And so they've had to find different ways to provide that capacity. And we want to have that capacity ready and available and fully capable when emergencies arise in the future. And then $500,000 for NOVA Vermont to support PropCash, PropCash Plus and FarmShare.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Can I leave that slide up there for Yeah? A second, Thank you. When we heard some of these same requests, or maybe all of them, last week from you Yeah, so these are, yeah. And then the governor, in the meantime, has delivered his budget address and delivered the budget, I guess, to us. I don't think any of these were mentioned in the speech. Do we know, do you happen to know, now that a few days have gone by, whether some or all

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: of these are in the budget proposal. My understanding, and we guess some other folks in the room might have a better understanding, is that they're not. I was looking at things yesterday, but the budget detail might not be quite what it will be soon. But looking at one time appropriations in the governor's budget, I did not see indications that these were in that. But I don't know in the base. And that includes also working lands. So that would be level funded at a million. There wasn't an appropriation to increase that to one and a half or allocate to three and a

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: half one time. What about the 6.3 for administering the state's share of the SNAP program?

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: I'm turning to Carrie at the food bank community,

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: you might have a little more. That would be in that base detail that we don't have. That would be in the ZSK section.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: All right, thank you. And I know we had questions since we went along, but before we let you go, does anybody have any other final questions? Working lands is 1,000,000 base. Now 1,000,000 base, think, yeah.

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Yeah. According to Secretary Tebbetts,

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: I know we just last, well, a few days ago, we're talking about budget adjustment with the food bank, next comes the budget. So we'll start to have these kinds of conversations and also have the agencies in maybe late next week or following week to present their budgets.

[Jake Claro (Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: Great. Yeah, appreciate the time. One thing that the Senate asked for, and if it's helpful, is just going to put together a table of these appropriations just to see them all together, maybe in a more trackable form.

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: Anything you want to provide would be And it doesn't have to be right now. Think, yeah, actually a separate document that we can then file in our budget folder would be helpful. Great, can you pass those over? Yeah.

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: We

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: were talking earlier about supporting the wood products. All right, Ujjay, thank you. Yeah, thanks so much.

[Ellen Kahler (Executive Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund)]: We will take a short break

[Rep. David Durfee (Chair)]: and come back for a little update from the food bank.