Carrie Sailor, senior manager of government and public affairs at the Vermont Food Bank, told the committee that food demand across the state has risen and that the network is increasingly purchasing food to meet need.

"We distribute about 14,000,000 pounds of food a year and 8 and a half percent increase is a lot more food," Sailor said, citing a recent reporting period in which most of the Food Bank's largest partners saw increases. She described the Food Banks three distribution centers (Barre, Rutland and Brattleboro), freezer and cooler capacity, and two federal programs the bank operates: the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (targeted to older adults) and the Emergency Food Assistance Program.

Sailor said program eligibility paperwork varies by program and partner. The Commodity Supplemental Food Program requires an application processed by the Food Bank and currently has a wait list because federal allocations are frozen at prior-year levels. The Emergency Food Assistance Program typically uses an affidavit and is administered at local food shelves.

The Food Bank reported partner-level increases ranging from double-digit percentages to triple-digit increases for some agencies (examples cited included increases of 10%, 82% and 116% among named partners during a recent July96September comparison). Sailor said the system is not designed to replace grocery-store purchases: "This system was intended to redistribute grocery store overage," she said, but many households now use food shelves weekly.

Sailor described a surge in demand after notices that SNAP benefits might be delayed in November, saying partners had some of their busiest days and that the Food Bank will pass $250,000 in emergency cash to selected partners so they can buy food quickly. She said the Food Bank has not received permanent base state funding and that recent state support was one-time.

State budget requests outlined by Sailor included a near-term ask to fully fund Vermonters Feeding Vermonters with $1,500,000 in a budget adjustment and an FY27 request for $5,000,000. Sailor described the FY27 proposal as $2,000,000 to fully fund Vermonters Feeding Vermonters (purchases from local farms), $2,000,000 to support partner food purchasing with no cost to local partners, and $1,000,000 to establish ready-response food-access work coordinated with Vermont Emergency Management.

During committee discussion, members and witnesses noted that consistent demographic data is limited; the Food Bank relies on "pounds out the door" as the most consistent system-wide metric and is implementing a multi-year IT project to improve partner reporting.

Ending: Sailor thanked the committee for recent emergency decisions that ensured benefits and described the Food Banks plan to distribute emergency funds to partners immediately; the testimony did not record any formal legislative action taken during the hearing.