Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Insanity, substitutes of our IDD, for various reasons, they committed a serious, very serious violent crime. And so now what this what the proposal in S-one hundred ninety three was to provide a placement for them that the courts could have and help them. We're trying to help the courts here with the decision making. We're also trying to help victim families and we're also trying to help the folks themselves who have committed the crime. So we wanna have a place with them that is appropriate and we wanna ensure that victims, families aren't concerned about these folks who have committed a violent crime are returned to the community and can cause further problems. Well that's what this is about. So we can go through and look at the amendment. So the first is we're being consistent with the judiciary committee that this will be under the purview of the Commissioner of Corrections within AHS and establish and operate a locked forensic facility for the secure evaluation, treatment, and care of individuals who can transfer. It would be about five or seventy one minutes. Yeah, thank you. Okay. And so the facility should be designed and operated in a manner that supports a therapeutic, recovery oriented, trauma informed environment comparable to a community based residential treatment setting while maintaining appropriate levels of safety and security. Will not refuse, and this is the language that we looked at yesterday, that this is the judiciary committee language not to refuse any person. Then we've added in provide for a safe housing and management of persons including ability to separate the population by sex and to otherwise address clinical safety or operational considerations as appropriate, including the possible operation, this is important, the possible operation of multiple facilities if required by the clinical needs of transferred persons. Can forward? You

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: I didn't see that, sorry about your answer.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: And then, yeah, on page two, and then deployed clinical services director to oversee transferred persons and then to implement staff qualifications, licensure training, supervision requirements that are sufficient to ensure that persons transferred to the forensic facility have access to clinically appropriate care, treatment, services, and support consistent with individual needs and with applicable professional standards. I'm not Legion Counsel so I can say ensure that persons receive clinically appropriate assessment and treatment planning including the development of an initial and we added that in yesterday. The initial person specific treatment plan within seventy two hours following transfer, which will be reviewed periodically as clinically indicated. That's important so we know that they're going to be involved with their clinical oversight within seventy two hours. Sorry, could you just explain what the green is versus the yellow? Oh, the green is what we added yesterday. The yellow is what we had the day before. That second green though, the Departments of Health, of Mental Health, and I don't think you need that second ov, I think you need a column. Department of Health. The biggest culm there is two. There's too many ovs in there. Oh, I'll ask I will the editor will catch that. How's that? My grammar says it's longer. Okay. I would I I have to take remedial pathology. Okay. Well, to we'll ask Katie that. So which one are saying? Of mental health and of?

[Christine Hadwell, Director, Food and Farm Program, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps]: Well, there are two of

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Situah. So it's Department Yeah. No. I have it. There's there's Mental health Yep. And aging and disabilities. Gotcha, okay, well, sure. Somebody remind me, we'll talk to Katie about that one, she's So on the we're getting on or before January 15, DOC in consultation with those various departments shall submit a written report to house committees on all of us and corrections institutions, health care, health and welfare, healing services. One time report, right? Annually? No. Well, let's leave it annually for now. There's a reason for that because it's a new process.

[Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale]: How

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: many pages of reports did you write? Well, it was a lot of pages. We'll leave annually for now and then the house will fix it. We wouldn't object. And then, so we have the annual report coming in and we're reporting on the number of persons served at the forensic We know it's a fairly small number anyway, currently with these folks who have committed violent crimes. What did you say in the calendar year? Three to five? And then the types of clinical services and treatment during the previous calendar year. And that's important because there's gonna be a diversity depending on what the needs are. And then we've struck out the rule making and added our own suggestion for rule making. So the Commissioner of Corrections and Consultation with the various departments and there's no up in front of those. There is one in front of mental health and I guess there is. Okay, well that's good. Adopting rules pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act and then clinically appropriate standards governing the provision of services at the forensic facility including requirements related to staffing patterns. So all the things that we asked for previously and ensuring that we're getting the rule making process started, standards for quality assurance, recruitment, clinical oversight, documentation, reporting requirements, safety, risk management protocols, mechanisms for monitoring compliance, and any other provisions necessary to ensure safe, effective, and clinically appropriate implementation, including, and this is the green part added yesterday, including potentially requiring a provision of a forensic facility services in a unit that is separate from the correctional populations. And then the interim report is by October, Department of Corrections and then continuing on their collaboration with the other departments, sending us this report to the same committees. And the report will address, this is the interim report, the status and anticipated timeline to the adoption of rules under this act. The forensic facility planning including specific proposed location of the facility, space considerations, design elements necessary to support the provision of therapeutic services and security at the proposed location and the timeline for any necessary fit out. And this is one that we had all talked about, mentioned. Forgot who said it, it was real common in terms of facilities. Initial staffing considerations, anticipated staffing, required qualifications, potential contracting needs, anticipated timeline for the development of the facility, and then the effective date, July '26. Section 4A, I haven't memorized that yet. Section four a goes into effect the definitions. Oh, so great. So a more discreet information by '29 and then all the other remaining people are making them. There's some not remaking, so I wasn't careful about it. But the other sections go into effect on January 28. So that would be I'll have to sort that out myself. It's part of the underlying bail.

[Department of Mental Health representative (unidentified)]: Yeah. I think the idea is that the facility would open then, and so the provisions allow me.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: We don't have our alleging houses. No. I got another lawyer. No. I have question, I think, for the department. Go ahead. Think the testimony was we're talking three to five individuals. Is that three to five that come in every year or are there three to five people that are there a long time? I wonder what the turnover is and if we've only got one person, does that become like solitary confinement?

[Department of Mental Health representative (unidentified)]: I'll answer that second part first. Think of thinking about how that's all going to work is part of the planning process. I think, again, that's why we

[Unidentified participant (pre-VYCC interjections)]: were hesitant to say it needs

[Department of Mental Health representative (unidentified)]: to be separate because we're talking about such a small population. We wanna have the flexibility to think about what that looks like. In terms of how many people, the idea it will it will vary. We're anticipating about three to five people a year tend to to qualify under these. Ideally, people who are coming in through the non competency route are getting restored to competency, and so then they would be discharged from the facility, and then they would go on and their trial would proceed. If someone was found not guilty by reason of insanity, the length of stay would depend on their clinical needs and the safety concerns. So it's hard to say because everyone's really individual, and it depends on their specific circumstances.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Could be there for life. If they are a danger to the public if they let go, but they are also mentally ill to the point of having been found saved. So I'm gonna At what point does this start to become It becomes a problem. Yeah. There's question in the this isn't going to be the end of the conversation. And I know that judiciary has worked really hard on this as we did last And that is an overarching question. Can people be restored to competency so that they can stand trial? Remembering also that they have caused a crime, committed a crime. Mean, if you were Or accused of committing extremely violent crime and are about harm to, potentially a harm to self and others in the community. So, and other states have approached this and I know that when Senator Crasheen presents it on the floor, I'll be talking a little bit about how they got to where they are. And we've had a tough time with this. Your questions are right on target.

[Department of Mental Health representative (unidentified)]: There is a yearly review by the courts. The court has to renew it every year. So it's not like once you're in your and perk the individual at any time say, I think that I'm no longer a danger. So there are new processes. No,

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: we're good. We got it. And so as I indicated earlier, this cannot be a committee amendment because we don't have possession. I'm gonna introduce the bill, the amendment. If you would like to sign on, you can let me know. Does anyone wanna sign on now? Okay. What I'd like to do is here at institutions. I'm not Okay. You're behind me. Don't do that. I know senator Harrison is signing off. Okay. I've got the site. The colleges bill, and I voted no in here. I will probably vote yes in finance because we're looking at the fees. Right. Okay. So I wanna close the conversation, but I'm asking you to let me know today if you'd like to sign on to the proposed amendment. You've got your afternoon committees. Right. And thank you.

[James Pepper, Chair, Vermont Cannabis Control Board]: And we

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: have just you can let senator Hinsdale out, and we'll have a job. Home.

[Unidentified participant (pre-VYCC interjections)]: I think they're up in

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: the hall right into the Shannon Hall, and maybe we'll have her she said two minutes. And before you folks leave, I just wanna say thank you for being here for your day, this hard work day. It's great to meet you all.

[Unidentified participant (pre-VYCC interjections)]: You. Terrific. I appreciate the work.

[Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale]: You came in at a good time.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Thank you very much for letting us meet you.

[Department of Mental Health representative (unidentified)]: Good time.

[Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale]: Yes.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: So, there she is. So, senator, we are so behind. If you could just take two minutes, that would be great. And I sent a constituent to you. Thank you. Oh, okay. Send them

[Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale]: to the right person.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Send them to you and Allison. Okay. What's the didn't say what's the Okay. That house, and now they tell me.

[Department of Mental Health representative (unidentified)]: You live? Do you want me to

[Unidentified participant (pre-VYCC interjections)]: That's right.

[Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale]: You tell me, madam chair, if you want me to just go. Yes. Okay. Introduce yourself then. Great. Senator Keisha Ram Pinsdale, member of Economic Development. It's my purpose here today and reporter and lead sponsor of S-two 78, the Cannabis Market Regulation bill. So, I think my chair this morning, you know, heard you're taking testimony and wanted to, she's not in the building for this week, so just wanted to make sure that you heard our intentions around the bill and could ask any questions about the, you know, the very, I think, thorough discussion we had about illicit substance use and how we are trying to bring more people into a regulated market. So, you know, what I would say going back and and I guess the good news is some of us, senator Cummings, senator Lyons, myself, senator Clarkson, even senator Morley, have been here long enough to to know when this was an illicit and illegal substance across the board. Mhmm. And all of our discussions generally when we move to legalize tax and regulate something have to do with the health impacts, whether we're better off in the illicit market or in the regulated market. I once we have a regulated substance that's legalized, it generally becomes an economic development question. So we do mixed martial arts, sports betting, you know, alcohol, tobacco, and I see Tucker smiling because these conversations feel like judicial conversations, you know, just the what ifs. But our goal is always to bring people into the tax and regulated market and to support our local industry. And the local industry part became very important this year because we're starting to hear a lot of overtures from the federal government that they were looking at descheduling cannabis. Where I first heard that rumor before it was confirmed by some of President Trump's, I think, executive orders or advisories, is from the alcohol industry. And why? Because they have been looking for a long time at getting into THC beverage consumption. So we are about to enter, I believe, into a whole new world of discussion about how we manage public health risks while also recognizing this is a legal substance. You will see that we listened to the health experts, we got the same emails you probably did from medical professionals, and we took out the concentrate cap increase, and we took out the advertising provisions. Those were the absolutely the two main things we heard from public health officials. I have to say when we talk about the problem with simply normalizing use in a way that might affect youth, that's going to be really challenging to get around in this context. And I would say jurisdictionally, it's also important to think about medical marijuana. Medical marijuana is legal in 48 states. It was legalized first here before we legalized recreational use of marijuana. And so we've had a medical market for a long time that has its own discussion and debate around the health benefits or the health risks of cannabis. We, in the regulated recreational market, do not allow for the advertising of certain health benefits that cannot be proven. And so for the most part, you'll hear from the CCB that is why they have the advert you know, that's why they have a check on advertising, is no false claims or or unfounded claims and other reasons, but we feel very passionately from the economic development committee, hence this bill came out, that we need to help our craft cannabis market. Those are the people who care a lot about who they sell to, and they make sure that they are following the law because they cannot afford to lose their license. They are losing business to the states around us who have different regulations than we do, and they they are still losing business to the illicit market. We heard from if you hear from cannabis retailers, they'll tell you their average age of their customer is late fifties. You know, they they have a lot of people come in who were quietly enjoying cannabis, and that's the retailers. We've looked at other ways for people to consume cannabis because we have huge deserts where there is no legal access to cannabis at this time.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Ask you to wrap?

[Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale]: Here is my last statement. My last you know, a lot of the build focuses on social consumption. Right? Events, etcetera. The biggest killer, and doctors should be able to confirm this, I don't think this has changed, the biggest killer in this country is isolation. That is a bigger killer than tobacco. That is a bigger killer than alcohol. We have seen our cannabis industry follow all the rules, give people a third place, give people the opportunity to find community, and they have done it in a more constrained market than the states around us.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: We got it. This is helpful. Thank you. Actually, is very helpful because it sets the parameters within which you folks evaluated the bill, and we do appreciate the elements that you took out that are very much directly related to prevention issues. Right, and

[Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale]: you feel the rest is really our jurisdiction on a regulated There

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: are couple of places we might be continuing to look.

[Unidentified participant (pre-VYCC interjections)]: That's a message

[Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale]: from my chair. Thank you. Thank you. That's good.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Yeah, thank you. Would spill off the set. Finance would take away. Well, this is good. No, we'll have several committees with an eye on it. And I'm glad to see that Kate Shepherd is here, and we may send a friendship line out to you.

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: For anything you need, Ann.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: I do. I mean, the question I have, Tucker, as we went through the bill and there was that, obviously the areas for social engagement having testing and tastings, the way we do with alcohol wine, tastings of events for cannabis, the regulation around those I think is important for us to understand. The other piece is on how many units can be sold, how many things can be sold together in a package, because that has implications for overuse, for somehow sharing with minors. While you're looking that up, Pepper, do you have anything you want to add? Can introduce yourself to the record and then just briefly, and I know we're behind it.

[James Pepper, Chair, Vermont Cannabis Control Board]: Yeah, so James Pepper, chair of the Cannabis Control Board, I mean, the nature of my testimony on a lot of this was providing regional comparison charts on every of the, all these various policy determinations, because every state does slightly differently. And I think one of the themes that economic development was looking at was how do we harmonize regulations in New England. So if there is interstate commerce, particularly among adjacent states, abiding states, that we have, you know, some similarity in how these markets look. When it comes to packaging limits, per package limits, and delivery, and events, it's really trying to coordinate with our neighbors.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Okay, and so from your perspective, does the packaging match what we're seeing in other states around us?

[James Pepper, Chair, Vermont Cannabis Control Board]: So, only one other New England state has this limit, and it's Maine, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and I think there's the AP slide, but also in the mid-thirty five, is that one hundred

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: milligrams of THC? Okay. So we're

[James Pepper, Chair, Vermont Cannabis Control Board]: gonna be fine. So, you know, Hampshire does not have anabolic system, and Massachusetts is at 100. Some of them have higher per serving, you know, it's only about ten milligrams per serving. There is a concern about raising the amount of THC in a single serving. There was less concern around raising the amount in a single package in the other.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Yeah. Okay. She still goes without the community. Well, and this bill is in finance. May actually have another crack at this bill, so we could have let you in and talk to them.

[James Pepper, Chair, Vermont Cannabis Control Board]: And appropriations as well. Yeah. So this bill has a few more stops. This

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: bill has more time. Tucker, maybe you take us to those two places. Sure. Good

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: morning. Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel. You should have in front of me draft 3.2 of the economic development amendment or S two seventy eight. I'll take you there. We'll start with section one because that's where the packaging limit is, and one note about the states around us, limit in Massachusetts is 110. I remember that because it was in the bill as introduced, as an adjustment from 100 to 100. So section one increases the amount that can be within a single package to two hundred milligrams of THC. As the chair of the CDC just noted, that is the limit that is in place in Maine. Something to note about how all of these sections work together is that this is not a limitation at all on how much an individual can purchase. It is a limit on how much THC can be within a single package, and I Was this in one of the CCP reports about packaging reduction? No. No. Okay. That was the part of the discussion in economic development. I couldn't remember this, but the discussion was around if you can buy, let's say, 50 smaller packages and be below the transaction 50, would it make sense to increase the amount that can be within a single package to reduce the number of packages and individual purchases? So, that's the packaging provision of the bill, and it leads into the next three sections, because this is where the limitation exists in law around how much an individual can purchase in a single transaction. I was very purposeful in stating it in law, because law does not equate to practice. And again, unless you are going to have an enforcement officer issue a civil violation for going over the possession limit, the transaction limit exists almost exclusively in law and for purposes of the point of sale retail.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: There's like three outlets at least in my building. There's two in the same block downtown, if I was reading. So I could purchase the limit at one, walk next door and purchase the limit there, and then drive out to River Street and purchase more. Actually, I think there's four.

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: We're retreading the conversation that happened in the other committee, which is that the transaction limit is trackable and applies to the seller and the purchaser at an individual retail location, and also you could have an individual go between wholesale retailers. The transaction limit provision increases from one ounce to two ounces. Sections three and four amend the provisions, the enforcement provisions related to the penalties for going over the possession limit from one ounces to two, so that an individual who purchases the maximum amount of transactions doesn't automatically trigger civil enforcement for possession.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: But if he does what Senator Cummings has said, he will, Correct? But it would be

[Unidentified participant (pre-VYCC interjections)]: hope. Oh, maybe.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: In fact, I doubt that anyone This is getting to be, whether or not this is something that police are going to

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: choose, right, to enforce. Something that I note in the alcoholic beverages space, there's two ways that an individual can violate the constitution. One of them is by importing alcoholic beverages against the laws of sleeps, and there are, in fact, laws against importing alcohol into the state of Vermont against state law, there are many, many people who do it. So there's always possibility for a gap between state law and the ability to enforce state law against individual commercial So, those are the packaging and transaction lending provisions. The next sections that you asked me to revisit are in sections five and six. They relate to the two pilot programs allowing the CCB to issue event permits and delivery permits. For the event permits, the highlights are that this would last for two years. In each of those years, there would be a limit, maximum limit on the number of permits that would be issued by the CCB. For the events, it's 20 total, and there's a split, a bright line split between public events and private events. 10 of each is the maximum. The language in this section is written broadly enough to allow the CCV to essentially experiment with the marketplace. Not so specific is the alcoholic beverage events permits, where you have special events, special venues, festivals, limited events, and a number of other, for example, retail event permits that are all very granular and specific about time, place, location, serving amounts, So this was drafted broad authority for the CCB with procedure adoption authority around security, permit restrictions, things like that. So I know the question came up about what types of events this covers. It's fairly broad. It could be the farmer's market, it could be a sampling event, it could be catering a wedding.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: That one really bothers me a lot. Wide open west.

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: There are

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: certain events that I see once a

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: while that have beer tents.

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: You try all kinds of different types of things.

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: I mean, I've seen it at fairs.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Festivals.

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: Yeah, exactly. And I guess I'm mentioning something like that also. Was that discussed in any form of testimony in other committees? It could include that. It could be a festival where a single permittee takes out the permit and is responsible for meeting all of the eligibility guidelines, and then there are sub licensees that are operating within that space similar to a beer or wine festival.

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: What if the organization didn't want them there? So I mean, I'm just thinking, like, what if a fair association? We we someone can say, we've issued this this this license to go through this at this event, and then the association the fair says, we don't want you there.

[Unidentified participant (pre-VYCC interjections)]: Yeah.

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: So then they can't go in there, obviously.

[Tucker Anderson, Legislative Counsel]: Yes. All of those things are built into the eligibility, including in the statutory requirements that the cannabis establishment pulling the permit has approval from the local control commissioners and has met all of the conditions that have been put in place by either the local control commission or the local select board. Of course, if this is public property that this event is happening on, they would have to get that approval from the municipality.

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: Basically, this is a marketing strategy as far as I can.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Yeah. So I don't like to do this to you, but we have to, because we're on the floor at eleven, and I have some folks who have come in, especially today, to present. But what I'm going to ask you is if you might have some time tomorrow. I'll have Calissa check and see if there's time tomorrow and you as well, James, so that we can have a discussion, committee discussion about this, because there's a lot here. And we'll do that with sincere hope that you will understand where we are. M. Because I do wanna get to the Vermont Youth Conservation Board. Christine had a call that's here, especially in last. Christine, we only have, we're on the floor at 11:00, but we've got some time, and it may be that this is the first time of another. Wonderful. Happy to come in.

[Christine Hadwell, Director, Food and Farm Program, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps]: We appreciate you making the time that you have this morning to meet with us. So I'm here, good morning. Morning. My name is Christine Hadwell. I'm the director of the Food and Farm Program for the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. And I'm here today with Brett Noft and Leigh Ann Mattel, both my colleagues at VYCC. We're delighted to meet with you this morning to share a little bit about what we do. We have an 11 acre farm in Richmond, that is an organic farm that produces thousands of pounds of food for Vermonters every year. It's an agricultural training hub for young people, but it also serves as the hub for the Healthcare Share, which is Vermont's largest and long mix running Food as Medicine program. What is food as medicine? That is a program where healthcare providers prescribe a share of produce to a patient who has a diet related illness or disease, and those patients are also food insecure, so they don't have the ability to purchase food, and so this share of produce that they get every week is an opportunity for them to work with their doctor to manage their diet related condition through food. VYCC produces healthcare shares throughout the year to over, we deliver to over four fifty families every year, including to North Country Hospital in Newport, to MAVA in Newport. We deliver to Sash. We deliver to CBMC in Barrie, and all sorts of sites in Barrie, and throughout Chimich County. We also deliver to Northfield, so a lot of different regions. We're currently delivering to five counties in Vermont.

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: Wow. That's uncoppable.

[Christine Hadwell, Director, Food and Farm Program, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps]: Programs like ours are gaining nationwide attention because there's a lot of evidence that's coming out that shows the impact that food can have to drive down healthcare costs and healthcare utilization. If we could use food as prevention, folks don't end up in the emergency room due to diabetes and other die related illnesses, hypertension, things like that. We got the data to prove it. We have data from our program participants that have shown reduction in A1C levels, so blood sugar levels going down, reduction in weight, increased energy, all of that is coming through in the data we collect every day through our program. At the same time, we are hearing that this program is really helping families that don't have enough food to put on the table for their households. Families that have said, My food stamps were cut twice last year. This program has helped me to have fresh vegetables so that I could use my snack benefits for other groceries that we need to So, why are we here today? The challenge, transportation. I'm sure know. You are We already have healthcare partnerships with clinics at Hospitals across the state. We've got our farm production systems, we have our distribution systems, we've got trained staff, we hire 80 to 100 young people on our farm through Meritor and programs to come and do the growing, the packing, the distributing of all of that food. We have everything in place except for that key piece of distribution. Currently, we use one leased cargo van to distribute our food across the state, That van is zipping across the state, doing multiple runs, having to go back crisscrossing, making multiple trips throughout the week, because we don't have enough space to fit all of the shares in one van every week. We also have increased need. We hear from doctors and health care clinics throughout the year that are interested in signing up, but we have this bottleneck of transportation. We would love to be able to serve more families, but we can't because we don't have the ability to get the food to folks that need it. If we were to get two additional vans, we could run a route simultaneously, organizing deliveries by region, being much more efficient, reducing travel time, bringing food distribution points closer to patients. We've heard from many clinics that families don't have a lot of vehicle access, and so being able to bring those shares closer to where they live, to a clinic that's closest to them, is really our goal. Our request to you today is for you all to consider a one time capital investment of $100,000 so that VYCC can purchase two cargo vans for the healthcare share. This would enable us to expand our program to more healthcare partners across the state, to serve more Vermonters facing food insecurity, to reach more counties, and to deliver more raw produce, at the same time connecting local farms with healthcare, which is such a vital connection that we have the ability in our state to be able to do if we have these investments that are needed to make that happen. The ability to scale our program would be tremendous with these two additional cargo vans. We are already making strategic investments. Our East Monitor Barn, if you ever drive along Route 2, you'll see a beautiful barn that's being restored. That's our historic East Monitor Barn. We are making significant investments in that barn currently to be able to have a winterized washpack space where we can collect more food from local farms, process that food, package it up to get it out to more plants. We are investing in more coolers for that barn, Everything is in place except for this final piece of distribution. In closing, I'll just say food is medicine, but only if we can actually get it to the people who need it. Transportation is the critical thing, and I would encourage your committee to consider making this one time investment for

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: our program. So, we had the money, we would do it. It's all down the hall appropriations. What I'm gonna suggest is that you've introduced us to your programs and I've heard you say you deliver to clinics. So what we're going to wanna do is to dive into exactly how this works, how the decisions are made about prescribing food, how it's distributed, where, and so on, then that will allow for us to make a more informed recommendation down the hall when that time comes. As one person who has a lot of experience in this area, I would say it's really outstanding what you are doing and appreciate it very much. You very much. What's going on in that line? Chat my glass bottle. Now you know. Go ahead over And I know

[Christine Hadwell, Director, Food and Farm Program, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps]: we just want to forget, I have one final thing to share, is on April 8, we will be here in the State House for Food's Medicine Awareness Day, and there will be programs from across the state that are doing this good work, and there's a statewide task force working on this currently. Yes, They are requesting to actually meet with this committee on April 8, so there'll be more opportunities to hear about who does my for abroad going on April 8. April 8, you said? That's correct.

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: Christine, one question you may want to prepare yourself for going to appropriations may be,

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: because I imagine you're traveling a lot

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: of distance, so I'm used to ambulances. Yeah. And you put up miles past, is how and know I how you seek your or you receive your forms of revenues. I don't know. I understand. But how are you gonna replace the two that are bought? Is there a plan in what if if the legislature and the appropriations committee gives you the 100,000 that you're requesting, how long is that good for? And then are you gonna come come back again for more requests? Or do you have a funding strategy and a plan to keep that investment going?

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: He's been on appropriations three quarters, so you're getting all the good questions.

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: Just want

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: to know, a great

[Christine Hadwell, Director, Food and Farm Program, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps]: question. Question, I and I'll just briefly respond to say we have a really great asset management plan in place We at actually have a fleet of over 50 vehicles that we use for our youth to be able to go out to do projects across Vermont. And for each of those vehicles that we get, whether that's through a donation or an investment, we then put aside funding over time so that as that vehicle gets phased out, we can

[Sen. John Morley III (Member)]: you get flipping vehicles or

[Christine Hadwell, Director, Food and Farm Program, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps]: something. That's

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: right. And you have a whole vehicle at the destination. Wonderful. Okay. Cool. Okay. That's great. This has been exciting, and I appreciate you

[Christine Hadwell, Director, Food and Farm Program, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps]: all being in here. It was great. Thank you. Thank you

[Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (Chair)]: very much. He'll be back.

[Christine Hadwell, Director, Food and Farm Program, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps]: Thank you. Bye.