Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: Thank

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: you. Okay, welcome back. We're continuing on with testimony, hearing about the community impacts of food insecurity and in general, the way things are out in the community for folks who the state for Vermonters. So

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: Ms. Kendall, welcome. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Good morning. Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today about food security and for your attention to this important issue in our communities. My

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: name

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: is Claire Kendall, Executive Director at the Family Center of Washington County, and I'm here today on behalf of the Vermont Parent Child Center Network. The network represents Vermont's 15 parent child centers, PCCs, which are located throughout the state and provide a range of in home and community based services to families with young children. We are funded by the state to deliver eight core services that build family resilience and responsive parenting, support child development, protect against economic hardship, and prevent maltreatment. In addition, PCC is our partner in Vermont's system of care and provide a range of contracted services for families with young children, including those funded with Medicaid and other federal sources. First, I want to thank you, madam chair, and any others who contributed to the effort to ensure that FreeSquare's Vermont beneficiaries will receive their benefits in November regardless of the federal government shutdown. The uncertainty about SNAP and many other federal programs is causing a high level of fear amongst the families we serve. That fear, in turn, makes it more important for all PCCs and community partners to be here for our families because our services all depend on the trusting relationships we build. We need them to know they can come to us with their questions and concerns. However, when we cannot assess accurate and timely accurate and timely information, it makes it more difficult for us to provide the supports that our families need. We were all heartened last Thursday and have it confirmed yesterday that a plan has been developed to ensure Vermonkers can receive their SNAP free Vermonk Squared Vermonk in November. However, the weeks leading up to date have families worried about whether they will be receiving their benefits. We're hearing directly from families who are scared and confused, receiving recorded messages from DCF telling them they will not receive their food benefits, which thousands of children and families count on to make ends meet. Families cannot simply stock up if they don't get benefits in November. Families do not have reserves of food or cash when they're on SNAP or Three Squares Vermont and other benefits. This type of message just causes panic and fear in our community. As a key part of the system of care for Vermont families, PCCs are community based partners that want to work with the state in helping families understand government actions and how it impacts them. For many families with very young children, we are the first point of contact, and families look to us for guidance and resources. Children need both nutrition and nurturing appropriately. When their families don't have the food they need or are economically stressed in other ways, they are forced to make decisions on which bills to not pay so they can pay for food. Research from the Stanford Center on Early Childhood's National Rapid Survey shows that parents who frequently make choices between which monthly bills to pay report higher levels of stress and anxiety. These conditions make it challenging for parents to provide the attention and nurturing that children need to thrive, and that is crucial during the most rapid period of brain development. This research also shows that household experiences of material hardship are significantly associated with decreases in measures of early development. Children and families that experience material hardship fall behind in their development. Further, as parents' experiences of material hardships increased, the children's development scores decreased, reflecting more negative impacts of material hardship on early development. This is an ominous finding, considering the situation we are in as a nation. Babies and their caretakers need every opportunity to thrive. Economic stability is foundational in meeting basic needs which are essential for well-being and growth of children, especially very young children. This research is clear, economic and material hardship in families is a stressor that can lead to higher risk for child welfare involvement. We work with thousands of families that have a high number of ACEs and no natural supports or safety nets. We strive to build up the five protective factors in families we work with, such as parental resiliency and providing concrete supports in times of need. The research has shown that increases in protective factors reduces rates of child abuse and neglect and leads to better long term outcomes. Last year, the Vermont Parent Child Center Network served over 20,000 families across the state. We are grateful for the state support for PCCs and the trust in our proven track record for providing critical services to Vermont's families. PCCs all use a small portion of our integrated grant, the federal CPCAP funds to prevent child maltreatment to offer conflict supports directly to families, to avert economic hardship, providing food, preventing utility cutoffs, preventing evictions, providing diapers and other essentials to parents. In addition, PCCs work to ensure that families receive the benefits and services they are eligible for by providing application assistance and advocacy and problem solving, including language translation. Families are coming to us with back rent due, utility shutoff notices, car repair bills, other expenses that they cannot pay because they need to buy food. In Washington County, we are working with a family with seven children who helped our government as translators in Afghanistan. They rely on government assistance as part

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: of their

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: relocation. Losing hundreds of dollars in food benefits on October 1 because of HR one has the family struggling to find food to feed their family. After having to flee their country to be safe, they are now afraid they will run out of food. We're all supporting another recently homeless family, single mom, two children, who has been living in had been living in her car. She has recently been housed and has a history of employment but is barely making ends meet. The loss of Rey Square's benefits will hit her household budget hard, and now she may have to choose between rent or food. With winter coming, families will choose rent, which means children and caregivers will be going hungry. These are just a couple of examples of the families PCCs work with as we buffer families from economic hardship. For this reason, our request is critical and timely. We are asking to build on our current partnership with the state to extend concrete supports to more families. Second, to increase our staffing to include the role of benefits navigator in each PCC to ensure that families get all the benefits they are eligible for and retain enrollment and benefits. And third, to make sure our own staff can receive a basic wage increase and health benefits to continue this critical work. Our request for FY '27 is an additional 1,800,000.0 for our integrated grant. We are looking forward to continuing our long standing partnership with the state and ensuring that families can access the safety net. The latest report from Annie E. Casey Foundation measuring access to opportunity in The United States, a ten year update, once again validates that Safety Net programs work and that withdrawing public investment brings serious consequences for child well-being. According to Casey's analysis of the Supplemental Poverty Measure, SPM, over the past four years, child poverty in Vermont rose from 7% to 9% as COVID era benefits were removed. In Vermont, 9% means 10,000 children in our state that are waking up each day uncertain of whether their needs will be met. The SPM report makes it clear that the loss of SNAP benefits could force another 1,000 children into poverty. And taking away other government benefits could raise the child poverty rate to 16%. Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today and for your attention to this important matter of food security for families with young children. Thank you, Claire. Questions from any members?

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Do have any direct federal grants that do PCCs receive any direct federal grants?

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: The reference CBCAP grant, we all receive. Divide I

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: didn't know. That was a new acronym for me.

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: Child Child abuse It's child The CBCAP. Yeah, CBCAP. It's Child Abuse Prevention Grant. It's federal It's literally targeted to reductions of child abuse and neglect. It's federally allocated to all states. And that money comes to us through our integrated grant. A small amount. It's a small percentage. But what that's targeted at is it goes directly to families. It goes out our door. It doesn't fund admin. It doesn't fund staffing. It's literally We all have processes across the state where families can come to us, like I said, any bad bill that's about to tip them over the edge, childcare bill that's fallen in arrears,

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: utilities, snow tires, car repairs, eviction prevention, etcetera. But it comes to the state and then comes out to you in integrated Correct. And so speaking of integrated grant, have you received Did you receive your integrated grant in a timely fashion this year?

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: Correct. We absolutely have. That's good Thank to you. And thank you to this committee for paying attention to ACT 150 and its implementation. We are successfully, the money is going through timely, and it's working quite well.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: That's good. That's not the case for everybody. So I'm glad it is the case for the PCC.

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: Thank you for asking. It is.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: Okay. Thank you very much. Just for knowledge, it stands for Community Based Child Abuse Prevention.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Okay. Thank

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: you. Can I get the ARC representative? It's C A C.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: C B, C as in cat, B as in boy, cat.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: Oh, okay. I didn't, I'd never heard it either. Thanks. Okay.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Thank you very much. Thank you, Regina. And appreciate everything that you and all the PCCs are doing to support young families out there.

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: Thank to the committee for your attention to this. Really important.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Okay. We're going to continue on now with some sort of broader state level review of how food insecurity is impacting Vermonters. We're going to hear from Vermont Food Bank, Carrie Stailer, and we're going to hear from Hunger Free Vermont with Anor and Ivy. So Carrie, why you come up? Hi, Christina. That's right. Anor, I forgot which one. You guys have decided which one. Somebody was going go first. Yeah,

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: sure. We'll both be here. Yeah.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Absolutely. Thank you for being here.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: Yes, thank you, committee. For the record, my name is Carrie Stailer. I'm the senior manager of government and public affairs for Vermont Food Bank. I had some technical difficulties this morning, so Laurie will be receiving my testimony a little bit later.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: I think we have it.

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: We do.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: Yeah. Great.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Unless it's different. You to take this?

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: Do the same. No, just roll with it. Good. Okay. It's the morning. I'm going to try and go a little bit quicker than what my my written testimony, testimony is, to make sure that Anor has time. But first, before we get started, I just want to thank you all, particular thanks to the Joint Fiscal Committee and to the Emergency Board for your swift work to address the urgent need that we have in front of us. I will address that a little bit later. In my testimony, I'm going to just really lay some foundational groundwork for all of you, but that action yesterday was critical to ensuring our neighbors have the nutrition they need this particular month. And there are still a lot of ongoing challenges that are going to face folks outside of that urgent need for this month. But that is incredible work and very critical. I'm going to spend my time today detailing a little bit about how Vermont Food Bank works with our network and community partners across the state to make sure everyone is clear as much as you can be, on how this part of the food system operates to support our neighbors to provide food access. I'm going to share how our work supports neighbors who are experiencing food insecurity in concert with other food access services like Three Squares. And then I will do a brief update on what we know from the past few months, what we anticipate for 2025, and what we are hearing from our partners in this urgent moment on October 30, as of this morning. So Vermont Food Bank is Vermont's only food bank. We operate three warehouse sized distribution centers in Barrie, Rutland and Brattleboro. I refer to them as distribution centers because And not warehouses, because we do not store food. We move food in and out many times a year, usually between nine and twelve times a year. We turn over each warehouse completely. Each of our distribution centers has freezer and cooler facilities, so we're able to handle fresh and frozen food as well as shelf stable food. And we also have a ThreeSquares Vermont outreach team who supports neighbors statewide. They are one of the community partners that DCF referred to and the only statewide community partner. Most others operate regionally to support people. We source food from a variety of places. We operate two federal food programs, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which is intended monthly food boxes intended to support older adults across the state. We also operate the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which is a federal commodity food program that redistributes U. S. Grown food through food banks across the country. The Commodity Supplemental Food Program has an income limit of about 150 percent of the federal poverty level. The Emergency Food Assistance Program is more accessible that folks can earn up to 300% of the federal poverty level. The Emergency Food Assistance Program food generally goes to food shelves around the state. A commodity supplemental food program is a food box delivery and pickup program that we operate. How do

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: you document, because there's eligibility criteria that you're laying out, how is that documented? Like I just realized the other day that people actually, when they go to a local food shelf that is one of your partners, they actually have to apply. There's some sort of information that is taken down. That's a great question.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: So for the commodity supplemental food program, people actually have to apply for that through the food bank. We have a team that processes those applications. Right now, there is a wait list for that program because of the federal government's The budget they're operating under froze that funding at, I believe, its twenty twenty four levels at this point. So, are no new people being signed up for That's

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: the one for older Vermonters.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: That's one for older Vermonters. So we handle all of that paperwork ourselves at the food bank. And it's an application like every other asking for income and improved income. The Emergency Food Assistance Program is a little bit more loose. It is not really an application. It's an affidavit that people sign and say, my household makes less than this amount of money. We've not asked for proof. We don't make people show their address. It really is more on the individual receiving the food to honestly share what they make. And so is that something that your staff at the food bank handle as well? That is at the 80 food shelves that operate that program. They do that. And so some food shelves also have other processes that they ask people to go through. And in part, is to I was going to talk about it. Will you? I'll talk about

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: it now?

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: No, it's fine. In part, that is to make sure that the food that they have is something They don't run out of it. So they're limiting geographically. They'll maybe only give food to people who are from certain towns.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Right. Right.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: Or they usually don't ask for income limits, but sometimes there will be household limits on the amount a household can take. So they're keeping that information. It is helpful to have that data. One of the challenges with this system is that even when you ask us for data, really the only data the Food Bank has is unduplicated individual visits per month, which is not really a helpful measure. I'll share a little bit more about that. It is merely telling us how many people are in this system in a given month. It is actually not a requirement for all of our partners to share that information with us. So we get about 60% to 70% of our network reporting on that quarterly. Really, the way that we, as a system, measure things is in pounds. Pounds out the door because that really is the earliest indicator of how much need there is in a community if food is moving more quickly or a larger quantity of food is moving. So, let me skip ahead a little bit.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: All right.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: That's the meat of it, no pun intended. So I looked at our data for pounds to see what the last reporting period, July September 2025, looked at compared to 2024, looking at roughly our top 15 partners who distribute the largest quantities of food, only one partner did not see an increase in pounds distributed. Globally across our entire network, we saw about an 8.5 increase in food distributed, which is significant. We distribute about 14,000,000 pounds of food a year. An 8.5% increase is a lot more food.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Sorry, there's a question. Is

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: the number usually pretty steady, and then you have a big increase, or is it volatile? I wish I could answer that.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: So prior to the pandemic, the food bank was pretty steady. We distributed about 11,000,000 a year. That had been the norm since the Great Recession of two thousand and eight. It had been starting to reduce a little bit. We were looking at maybe we could distribute £10,000,000 a year. That would be great. When the pandemic happened, we distributed, I think it was £20,000,000 one year, 19,000,000, 17,000,000. And then it was starting in the past five years, we distributed 12,000,000 and thought, great, we're headed in the right direction. Then the past two years had been 14,500,000.0 and $14,000,000 So we operate on the federal fiscal year. That's those October to September measurements. We really have no idea what this coming year will hold. And really one of the things we hear from our partners, like you just heard from Liz and Claire, more people are coming, more new people are coming, larger families are coming. They need more food. Changes in SNAP benefits mean that there are more people who do not have that food available to them to buy from the grocery store. That's the gold standard. We all want to go to the grocery store and just buy what we need. And when that is a threat and threatened and those amounts are reduced, they were really not sufficient anyway. Folks turn to food shelves, and food shelves are not a good replacement for the grocery store. This system was intended to redistribute grocery store overage, and it was intended to do that to people who were very poor or who were circumstantially poor, a job loss, a house or car repair, like a furnace that you can't afford, so temporarily you go to the food shelf. This was never intended as a replacement for the grocery store. That is how people are using this system. They are coming week after week. They are using this as a way to make sure that their families have food on the table every day, not extra food, not food in the pantry, food on the table. And I think one of the things that has shifted is that some of our partners know so many of their clients have three squares that they will say to them, shop at the food shelf first and get your staples, and then use your three squares because it's just supplemental to get things that you can't get from us. Maybe it's your fresh food, maybe it's specialized food that we don't carry, because this is not a system There's a lot of purchasing that we do that has been the area of growth, that has been what we have been able to use to meet that 14,000,000 pounds, sorry. We've had to purchase more and more and more food. There is not enough donated food in the system, and there is not enough federal food in the system to meet that 14,000,000 pound need. And if that need continues to grow fifteen, sixteen million pounds, it is just money that will have to be used to purchase that food, and that money will have to come from somewhere. That is why we have been to the legislature year after year asking for support to continue to purchase more food, because there is not enough resources in the system, and there is this continued high pressure. I'm just going to give you a couple spot examples of organizations, and there's a little chart in my testimony. Neighbors in Action, which operates two food shelves, one in Cabot, one in Lyndonville, saw a 10% increase that July to September period year over year. Enough ministries over in Barrie, as one of the food childrens we're talking about, an 82% increase. Many of the folks they serve are unhoused, and they really need special food to make sure that people can prepare that outside of a kitchen facility. And some of the largest increases we're seeing from some of our larger partners, Burlington Salvation Army saw 116% increase in the amount of food they're distributing. That food is a combination of often federal food, donated food, and then purchased food. Purchased food includes our Vermontchers Feeding Vermontchers program, which the legislature was generous enough to fund last year at half $1,000,000. That food is purchased from local farms and goes to our partners for free to them. They pay no cost for that. There is also a purchasing program that we operate where we purchase truckloads of food, and our partners can buy You can pass a discount onto that so they can buy caseloads of food from those large truckloads. But those increases are a combination of all of those things, with the exception of federal food. We've actually had a small reduction in federal food this year. There was a cancellation of 12 truckloads that were supposed to arrive throughout the year that the federal government canceled in March. I think I want to skip ahead a little bit. There are some quotes. You've heard some really important stories already today. I won't share those with you, but I do just want to skip ahead to what we're seeing and hearing now, like in the past two weeks. So when word started to go out to people who were receiving Three Squares that they were not going to get their November benefit or that it would be delayed. Many of them immediately turned to food shelves and food pantries. I talked to several of our partners on Monday and Tuesday. They had some of the busiest days they have ever had. Brock said they had 115 people on Monday. They just expanded their hours to address waiting room crowding. So they're really some of our partners are very challenged by the amount of people who are coming to The States. They do not have more food. We have not had more food in our system. They have not had more food in our system. So that $250,000 from the legislature is critical. That will be distributed to select partners as cash. We're passing on 100% of that to make sure that they can go buy food wherever it is they can purchase food from. It may be from the grocery store. It may be from us. It may be from local farms. That money will get out as soon as we are able to process that so that partners can act on that as soon as possible, because they are already seeing this steep, steep increase, and many of them are sharing deep concern with us, and deep concern from neighbors who are coming in very anxious, very worried, very upset. So that brings me back to those three first benefits, which are really going to be critical, that help stem the flow of people having to use the charitable savings system. It really is sort of one pool. I'll stop there. I want to make sure Nora has enough time for her testimony, but I'm happy

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: to take any questions. Do you just want to I see in the summary, do you just want to get it on the record about what you'd be Probably.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: Tell you what I'm asking for. Yeah. Thank you, Theresa. Thank you, looking out for me. Just

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: thought I would mention it. It is here, but

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: Yeah, yeah, of course. So this legislative session, we will be requesting $1,500,000 in the budget adjustment process. That is to fully fund the Vermontros Feeny Vermonters program. Farmers are also impacted by challenges to SNAP. Many of these partners accept crop cash at farmers markets. Vermontros feeding Vermontros is just one more way to economically support farms. All of the money from that program goes directly to farms, either through direct purchasing that we do or through grants to our food shelves where they buy directly from farmers. So this amount of funding will actually help us be better aligned with the growing season. I know that's not always a concern of this committee, it is a real challenge if we don't know that we could have that funding early enough in the growing season, we actually have to reduce that budget for the year and not purchase enough from farms. So that is what we will be asking for in the budget adjustment for FY 'twenty six. For FY 'twenty seven, we'll be asking for $5,000,000 again. Structured similarly to the way we asked last year, 2,000,000 of that would go to support the Vermontress Feeding Vermontress Program. That is the full funding for that program.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Dollars 2,000,000

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: would go to support our network partners. That goes to purchase food that is distributed for free to those partners. There would be no cost to those partners using state dollars. And then $1,000,000 would support Ready Response work in collaboration with Vermont Emergency Management to address food access disaster response and planning. Is work that is new. That is work that we would have to instigate with Vermont Emergency Management. We have been in discussions with them and they are supportive of that effort because currently food access is not a consideration during the first part

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: of a disaster response. Thank you. Thank you very much. I guess I Okay, just a second. I just want to I think I want to ask, but I think I know the answer to this question, we have somebody from Approach here. Any money that so it's it's relatively recent that the Food Bank has received state funds. And but any money that you have been getting my understanding is 1 time dollars. It's not built into the base. Is that correct?

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: We have not received any money that is not 1 time dollars, and we've only received funding since 2020. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

[Unidentified committee member]: Go ahead. I'm just wondering if you're seeing an increase in older Vermonters showing up in the Do you track that, like the age?

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: I do not have that demographic information. Each of our partners has that, and they often keep that information themselves. But it is not information that they report to us. Although I will say that almost every partner I talk to anecdotally names older adults and families with children every time, year after year. Yeah.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: And that's the one program that

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: you have a waiting list for right now? That is the one program that the federal government reduced the case load for, and we do have a waiting list. And that program is relatively small. It's about fifteen twenty two households across the state. And it is just one box of food, which is important to people, but not enough to make people teens.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Thank you very much, Carrie. I appreciate it. Just a quick question.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: So the box, I forget the acronym, that's Individuals can get that in addition to their SNAP benefits, correct? Yeah, all

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: of these things can be stacked. Okay.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: And the data that the partners receive, that's just kind of not consistent, right? It's whatever the partner chooses to collect. There's no consistent indicators that It's very hard for

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: us to have consistent indicators beyond pounds. And that is because we collect that information to report to the federal government for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, but there are no actual requirements to report data. Many partners report it because they know it's helpful. For situations like this, it's helpful for us to see that information and project, but it is not always consistent and is not always the information that you or I would want to ask for. Who are these people? What is happening? Why this? Now, it's not that level of detail.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: I guess I because we struggle with this here in the legislature when we have to make decisions about who to give resources to, who to put into the budget. And it has been an issue about being able to tell the story of the food bank in something other than just thousands of pounds of food. So I don't know. I guess I would encourage you to think about collaborating with your partners and having some basic I don't mean three pages of data, but some basic things that in order for them to get stuff from you, that they have to provide.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: We're working on implementing a computer system that will help to do that. It's a heavy lift. It's a multi years long project. And that would give us better data. I would also say that we're not the only ones who address food security in the state, and that better food security data for the state of Vermont is really important. And I think we are just one piece of that. And if there was a system to collect food security data about who is food secure, who is food insecure, what resources they are using, what resources they are not using across the state would help all of us. Agreed.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Right now, you're the one coming asking for $5,000,000 Of

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: course, of course. Yeah. Just being honest. So

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: that's the And you're the one statewide organization that we have that provides food out to the whole state. So that's why I focus

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: on Oh,

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: of course. Yeah, I think it's a bothand.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Yeah. Can I just make one? Liz, go ahead. Would you like to interject?

[Liz (Community Action Agency representative)]: Just about the data piece. So the community action agencies, because we are federally funded, we are required to collect a lot of data. And I think that if you were to ask us for the data that you're like how many people are disabled, how many people are older, how many people are on three squares, we collect that information and I think that's a pretty good snapshot snapshot because a lot of the people that use our food shelter are also using all the other community food shelters as well. So if you need that information, I think DCAP as a network would be able to provide that information.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: That's helpful. Thank you, Liz. Thank you. Anne?

[Anne B. Donahue, Ranking Member]: I wanted to add to that and maybe in response to the question too. I've been a volunteer at our local food bank for a long time. And we have a sheet, an intake kind of sheet that from the appearance of it, assumed was going somewhere. Apparently, maybe not. And it's not detailed, but it does break down in the household that's coming, how many are 65 and how many are 18, which really gives you a family size but also gives that really key information. I do know in response that that is practically in every case, almost in every case, the folks coming in are either children in the family or elders.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Yeah. Go ahead, Representative Bishop.

[Doug Bishop, Member]: I can see where the struggle would be in trying to get disparate data sets because I work at our local food shelf in Colchester, and they're collecting this because, like many nonprofits, they're seeking funding from many sources. One source wants to know 55 or over, one wants to know 65 and older, and the number of children, etcetera. So it's challenging, but there's data out there. It's just a matter, I think, of aggregating. It sounds like the community action agencies probably get you larger sample sizes or get us larger sample sizes, and I imagine it could be quite helpful.

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: Yes, and I will likely have better information by the time we get to January.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Just suggesting it might be helpful. That's all. Great. Thank you, Carrie. Welcome, Inor. Thank you. And I don't know what Ivy looks like. Ivy here? Oh, she's on the screen. Okay. Great. Thank you. Yes. And I just Before you start your testimony, I just wanted to extend our thanks for the messaging that you have been getting out. Lots of people have referred to that, and it's been accurate. It's been concise. It's been, I think, very helpful to people. And so I just wanted to say thank you, because that isn't always easy to do, especially when things have been changing as quickly as they've been changing. So you've not hesitated to put information out, but it's always been clear and accurate, which is really important. So thank thank you to both both of you for doing that.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: Thank you so much, Chair Wood. And the thanks really does go to Ivy Meenak, who is Hunter Prefer Mantz Director of Policy and Advocacy Work. And I asked for her to be included here today in case a member of this committee has a question that is more deeply technical about the SNAP program than what I am capable of answering, because Ivy will be capable of answering it. And also, she's going to share her screen, and we have a few slides Thank to walk you. And I'm Anor Horton. I'm the executive director of Bloomberg for The Record. So I want to start by thanking you, Chair Wood, and members of this committee, and of the legislature, and the Joint Fiscal Committee. I want to thank you all, members of this committee, holding this important hearing on the consequences of federal policy changes for your work in the upcoming twenty twenty six legislative session. Your committee, in particular, faces the daunting and critical task of determining how to help Vermonters survive with dignity and ensure the best outcomes possible for all of us as federal policies make fulfilling this commitment that I know we all share much more difficult. And I understand that my primary assignment today is to provide you with some explanation and context and strategies around addressing the federal changes to SNAP policy that were enacted this past summer in the federal budget reconciliation process, what we're calling HR1, here today. But I want to start by expressing my deep gratitude on behalf of all of the organizations that are working to keep people food secure from the town level all the way up to statewide for the courageous, compassionate and strategic decision by the emergency board yesterday to use state contingency funds to ensure that low income Vermonters will have food benefits on their EBT cards and heat in their homes in November, and a backstop with the charitable food system in Vermont as well. And while my testimony is not focused on the current federal government shutdown, I can tell you that the anxiety, confusion, and stress being caused by USDA's refusal to release SNAP contingency funds that they have and that they are actually legally required to use has already caused real harm to the health and well-being of Vermonters, as you've heard from previous testimony here this morning. And it's undermined people's trust in government. And I think that, in addition to figuring out how we're going to continue to create food security for people in Vermont, figuring out how we're going to continue to make sure that people are trusting in community agencies and government agencies in our state is another critical task

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: before us.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: And I also want to thank the Department for Children and Families for their staff. Miranda and Leslie are here today, and everybody else at DCF for their incredibly hard work during this really, really difficult time. So you know, but I'll just say, again, for the record, that the national context here is that on 07/04/2025, President Trump signed HR1 into law, and that made the largest ever cut to our nation's most effective and dignified federal nutrition program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, called Three Squares Vermont in our state, and it used to be called Food Stamps. So you've heard all three of those. Today, I'm gonna be using SNAP and Three Squares Vermont in some sort of logical, I hope, way to talk about the federal program and how we implement it at the state level. But anyway, okay, that's what that is. These harmful changes, Three Squares Vermont remains our state's most effective program to reduce hunger and poverty, particularly in our rural high cost of living environment. ThreeSquares Vermont helps nearly 10% of our state population. 10% of our state population buy groceries every month. That's about 63,400 people. And just speaking to Representative Steady's question from earlier about how many of those folks are working, who are subject to the work reporting requirements, and these kinds of questions, I really think it's very important for us to remember that the vast majority of the people we are talking about here are children, 19,000 older adults, seventeen thousand people with disabilities, also part of that number. Okay? And protecting and maximizing participation in ThreeSquares Vermont supports, obviously, our lowest income Vermont households and families. But it also supports our grocers, our farmers, and our entire state economy. We're talking about $150,000,000 a year that flows into our food system. And that is jobs, and that is family farm survival. And that is and I know from where you represent in Vermont that for some of you, I am talking about your communities the one community grocery store, the one gas station convenience store, where food is available in your towns. If we didn't have a robust Three Squares Vermont program in our state, your community, everyone in your community, would become less food secure very, very quickly, because those small businesses would really be at risk of closure. So it's also important to remember that in order to receive Food Scores from Out benefits each month, people have to complete a lengthy application. They have to provide verification about their income and their expenses and many, many other details. They have to complete an interview with state agency workers. They have to be found eligible by Department for Children and Families Economic Services Division through a very careful process with people who are carefully trained to carry that out. And this program is meant to support grocery costs. Right? It's called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And sadly, that's all that it is, as you've heard, right? The charitable food system has become kind of the additional underpinning support to what really should be federal support so that everyone in our country can eat and no one has to go hungry. People have to be below certain income limits based on how many people they live with and share food costs with. So then when we use the word household, that's what we mean. How many people do you live with where you're sharing food costs? So just for an example of this, a single mother with two children. That would be a household of three people who share their food costs for purposes of qualifying for Three Squares Vermont benefits. And they would need to earn that single mother would need to earn less than about $4,100 a month to qualify. So that's about $49,000 a year for a family of three to live in Vermont. So the most, if all the calculations in the application about their rental mortgage costs, their utility costs, their childcare costs, if there's older disabled adults, their medical expenses. All of these very particular household by household calculations go in to figuring out the actual monthly three Squares a month benefit for any given family. And the most food benefit that that family of three, a single mom with two kids, could receive would be $785 a month per food for that whole family for a month. Just think about your own grocery bill for just a minute. And the average across all households in the state who are eligible and enrolled in Three Scores Vermont is about $319 a month, dollars 79 a week for food. So for most households, monthly benefits are issued on an electronic benefits transfer, EBT card, that looks and works like a debit card at more than 600 grocery and convenience stores across Vermont and 40 farmers markets. For over sixty years, monthly SNAP benefits have been entirely federally funded, even during all past federal government shutdowns. So, what the emergency board did on Thursday is really, I hate this word, unprecedented. And the federal government has never before not used the SNAP contingency fund created by Congress to keep Three Squares Vermont, to keep SNAP benefits flowing nationwide, even during, and you know we've had, numerous federal government shutdowns in the past. SNAP funds flow directly into our state economy when people buy groceries with Three Squares Vermont. In any given month, Three Squares Vermont keeps more than $12,000,000 in our state economy. And so this makes Three Squares Vermont not only our most effective food security program, but an essential economic stimulus program. Every dollar in ThreeScores Vermont Benefits generates up to 1.8 in economic activity. And in rural areas, that spending often determines whether a small business can keep its doors open or not. For the over 63,000 Vermonters who rely on FreeSparse Vermont every month to buy groceries and the 600 plus retailers and farmers who depend on those funds to support their bottom lines, this program is essential. We often hear it referred to as a lifeline. It is dignified, private, and incredibly efficient way to support hardworking Vermonters, older Vermonters, veterans, children, people with disabilities, so

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: that they can have the food that they need.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: You've heard a lot of us here already today, and you're going to hear it a lot more in the coming legislative session, talk about how critical it is to meet people's basic needs and why we are calling things basic needs because they are fundamentals to sustaining a person's life. I'm not being dramatic. I'm just being literal, okay? They are the base of a person's health and well-being and a family's stability. Too often, have to choose between food for breakfast or putting gas in their car to get to work, between buying needed medication or buying groceries. And Three Squares Vermont eases the impossible choices that so many Vermonters are confronted with each and every day between meeting one basic need and meeting another. And hunger is caused when people cannot meet all of their basic needs at the same time, because they cannot afford to do that. That is what causes hunger. So you've heard already from our Department for Children and Families today about the particular devastating changes that HR1 has made, both in funding structure for how the state administers SNAP and changes that are causing people to be at risk of having their benefits reduced or of losing their benefits altogether, because they cannot meet new burdensome reporting requirements. So I'm not going to walk through those again. They are also laid out in the written testimony that I submitted, which I think is the longest written testimony I have ever seen in any committee in the ten plus years I have been testifying there. So sorry about that. But you have it.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: We get it. Get it. Thank you.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: So I'm not gonna walk I'm not gonna go through those again. I do want to touch on one piece that you're going to be taking additional testimony on a little bit later. Laura, can I just interrupt Yes, this for of course?

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: Do you

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: have a question now?

[Anne B. Donahue, Ranking Member]: Yeah, it might be. You may be about to reference it. But I just wanted to clarify. On the those the non citizen categories that are being cut, those are all legal residents. Correct? Yes.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: Okay. In fact, I am right with you. I'm right where you are. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. They all have legal status here.

[Claire Kendall, Executive Director, Family Center of Washington County (Vermont Parent Child Center Network)]: Yes, they do.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: Are all folks who were admitted as refugees. So that's one legal status. They came into The United States fleeing persecution, and then were designated as asylees, asylum seekers, after they entered. So that's a second legal category. They were given legal status. Or they are Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders. So all of those categories have legal status to be in The United States. And all of those categories are entitled to regularize their status, become legal permanent residents, LPRs, green card holders, all of those are the same thing after a year. And the question is whether the HR1 does or does not affect those categories of people after they have regularized their stats and become legal terming presidents. And there is National legal experts are saying that actually, HR1 does not change the underlying law, and those folks should still be eligible for SNAP benefits. So that is the question that we have been looking into, others have been looking into, and that I would urge this committee to consider more fully looking at kind of national legal opinions on this, talking to Vermont Legal Aid. And you're going to hear some additional testimony about that from the Vermont Afghan Alliance, I believe. So

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: I'll be And I appreciate the fact, again, that you have been a resource, you know, information for this. And part of what I'm trying to, I guess, get my head around, in particular for Afghans who have special immigrant visa status. So in reading through all the information that I've read through, it it I don't see anything that says that they are not LPR, lawful permanent resident. And I recall seeing on the Department for Children and Families slide earlier that legal permanent residents were exempted from being removed. So in other words, they could continue SNAP benefits. That was on their slide. And I guess and maybe this isn't a question for you, and I guess I'll ask the department when they come back. If Afghan refugees who are here with special immigration visas are considered legal permanent residents, and that's a term of our committee members, that's a specific thing, Then I'm unclear why they were terminated. And I realize that there's not a large number of them, but I'm I'm a little confused as to why they were terminated.

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: So I am not a legal expert. And so I'm not the right person to Yeah. All the details on this. But here's what I want to here's what I really wanna emphasize. The fault for the uncertainty and chaos that we are all collectively trying to grapple with here lies at the feet of the current federal administration and USDA. They have not issued clear guidance. They have instructed states that they must implement without giving them any rules for how to implement. They have threatened our states with catastrophic costs if implementation doesn't happen. And they're failing to release SNAP contingency funds that they have to fund SNAP benefits. And they are causing the anxiety and fear and stress. And for our state to have to convene in the emergency board and use our own state dollars for a program that our federal tax dollars are paying for. It's our program that we've already paid for. And our billions of dollars are sitting in that contingency fund. And I just want to make that really clear that that's where the blame lies. And we should all be writing, and you as state legislators could also write to Secretary of USDA and demand that our taxpayer dollars be released to fund these programs and that guidance be released. So, just want to say that. I know that our Department for Children and Families is operating under an incredible strain to try and ensure that they are protecting the Three Squares Vermont program as best as they can. So I want to say that. And I want to say that I think there is a question about whether a ban on SNAP benefits so this is from the Personal Responsibility and Woman Opportunity Act of 1996, the Clinton Welfare Reform Act, which implemented a ban of five years after someone became a green card holder. So you had legal status, and you were going through that process, and once you became a green card holder, now you can't receive SNAP for five years, except for certain exempted categories from that five year ban. And that's what we're talking about here right now, is whether refugees, special immigrant visa holders, asylees, whether the exemption that they have under that 1996 law was or was not changed in HR1. And it seems most legal experts on this are agreeing that it was not changed. So, that is as far as I really should be going. I've probably gone way farther down this particular road than my expertise should be permitting me to go.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: I think it just helps us to have some background because this is new, I think, for most of us. Representative Doug.

[Doug Bishop, Member]: If you know this detail, legal asylees, They're not permitted to work under federal law. Is that correct?

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: I'm sorry. We might have witnesses coming

[Doug Bishop, Member]: may have. Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't at

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: didn't look at the the full. Full rates. I Yes. So, that's okay. Just, I don't want to, I try very hard.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: It's good, it's good. Until you have reviewed Pont's reputation

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: of providing only accurate information,

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: so I should follow-up. That's okay. I'm gonna ask you to kind of wrap up, Anora,

[Carrie Stahler, Senior Manager of Government & Public Affairs, Vermont Foodbank]: if Of you

[Anore Horton, Executive Director, Hunger Free Vermont]: course, yes, yes, yes. All right, so, all right. All of these federal changes, despite all of this confusion that we are all trying to navigate, Three Squares Vermont is still our most effective, efficient, and dignified state security program. And as Vermont state policy makers, you action to ensure that it remains so for the tens of thousands of Vermonters who depend on it. And we're all here ready to partner with you to support these efforts. We, as a state, have already come far down the road to food security, and we don't have to stop now, regardless of what the federal government is doing. So there are three actions that the state of Vermont can take in the 2026 legislative session that will bolster Three Squares Vermont, provide backstops where needed, and invest in existing systems that work for Vermonters. So the first thing we must do is maximize and leverage federal funding whenever possible. I think it's really important for you all to understand that a lot of these changes to SNAP, they are new bureaucratic and paperwork hurdles that it will be very difficult for people to get over. But if they can get over them, most people do not need to lose their benefits. They do not. And that is why everybody's here talking about benefit navigators today. For Medicaid and for SNAP, the same is true. If we help people over their fear, over their shame, over their confusion, and help them navigate through these new hurdles that have been imposed on us by the federal government, we can keep almost everyone on these critical benefits. And we have to do that for our state to be able to afford to run all the other important programs that we do to make sure everyone's basic needs can all be met. And so that the charitable food system is not completely overwhelmed, which is what is happening right now. I hope you are hearing that from the testimony that has come before me today. We have to fully fund SNAP administration. That is absolutely critical. We have to expand benefits navigation and outreach for SNAP and Medicaid. And we could do that in a strategic, combined, efficient way that could really make a profound difference for Vermonters and even enroll more eligible people than are enrolled now. Over 40% of people who are income eligible for Three Squares Vermont are not enrolled right now. Many of those people are eligible. So we could actually use this federal disaster as an opportunity here in Vermont if we work together and are smart about it. We can also strengthen early childhood nutrition supports. We're asking in the 2026 session for the legislature to appropriate $182,000 for the Agency of Education's Child Nutrition budget for incentive payments to sponsor organizations of the Child and Adult Care Food Program to shore up those legally required sponsors so that all of our family child care home providers don't lose the ability to use federal funding to provide meals to all of those youngest and most vulnerable children in our family child care homes. Alright, then provide concrete supports. So there are vulnerable groups of people you have heard who are not going to be able to access federal programs or for whom federal programs are not sufficient, But we've got to make sure that our most vulnerable folks can maintain a bare minimum of health and family stability, even if they're no longer eligible. So flexible funding needs to be provided to trusted community organizations and the Vermont Food Bank Network, the PCCs, the CAP agencies, organizations like those are who I'm talking about, so that they can help each family have the critical little piece of support, a gas card or a grocery card or a utility bill paid, to keep them going. The third thing, the third and last thing, I promise, Chair Will, is we have to raise revenue. The highest earning 5% of Vermonters are set to receive a total federal tax cut of over $440,000,000 a year. And they're using money pulled directly from SNAP and Medicaid, which are programs we all pay for with our tax dollars, you, our legislators, need resources with which to ensure the best outcomes for all of us here in Vermont, and the survival of our communities depend on it. So we have a long legacy in Vermont of being a leader in policy that moves us toward food security, and we don't have to stop now. We cannot replace every federal dollar loss, but we can think creatively, innovatively, and lead again in designing policy choices that ensure the best outcomes for Vermonters at this moment and into the future. So thank you so much to this committee for considering the strategic three part plan and for holding this hearing today. And we look forward to working with you through this session as your committed partner. Thank you very much.

[Theresa Wood, Chair]: I appreciate that very much. And thank you, Ivy, on screen there, for all the work that you've done, as Anor pointed out, that you're the of the person behind the information that's been going out to Vermonters. So I just wanted to say thank you for doing that. So we have used a hard break, but, we are going to take a brief, like, ten minute break. So, please be back in ten minutes.