Vermont

Aiming to Reduce Hunger, Vermont Nonprofits Launch Food Access Network

The approach is a modernization of the charitable food system, advocates said

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Agencies serving food-insecure Vermonters are launching a new network, with strengthened community partnerships and technology upgrades, which they think could revolutionize the way charitable food support is delivered to potentially tens of thousands of recipients in the Champlain Valley.

The familiar food shelf is not going away, but in an effort to reduce stigma and to reach more people including folks who’d have trouble getting to traditional pickup sites, Vermont’s largest direct provider of charitable food is modernizing.

"I think it’s a huge transformation," said Julia MacGibeny, the access manager at Feeding Chittenden.

Feeding Chittenden and its parent organization, the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, announced the launch of the Food Access Network during September's Hunger Action Month.

The centerpiece of the new network is an online system born from the COVID-19 era of curbside ordering. Recipients use it once they’re introduced by their healthcare provider or social services organizations in the network, who can also help folks place grocery orders if they’re not tech-connected.

"We know that each year, chronic disease accounts for 70% of all the deaths in the United States, and poor diets really contribute to that," Paul Dragon, the executive director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, emphasized.

The Food Access Network will feature deliveries in certain cases, more satellite sites, and expanded community partnerships in Franklin and Addison Counties. Those partnerships will include early education centers, community health clinics, family advocacy organizations, and groups working to promote locally-grown food options, leaders said Wednesday. 

"I think this will be duplicated nationwide," predicted Rob Meehan, the director of Feeding Chittenden. "People will see we haven’t been reaching people that need help, there’s got to be other ways to do it — here’s an example of how to do that."

The grocery portal is connected to the broader Vermont Foodbank inventory, advocates explained, and is aimed at providing healthier and more culturally-relevant options — while reducing food waste.

"It’s no longer top-down, that we get this food from the government and then distribute it," MacGibeny said in an interview with NECN & NBC10 Boston. "It’s we are asking folks what they want, what they need, how they need it, how they want it, and then we’re doing that."

A $300,000 fundraising drive for warehouse space and other needs for the expanded Food Access Network is now underway, a CVOEO spokesman said.

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