Vermont Foodbank

We want all Vermonters to have the food they need to live healthy lives. We want to support healthy communities by ensuring that fresh food is available for all.

Specifically, our outcomes include:
1. The Vermont Foodbank efficiently gathers and shares a diverse mix of quality food to better meet the food needs of people in Vermont within a changing food bank industry.

2. The Vermont Foodbank builds and nurtures strong relationships with network partners in a Vermont where no one goes hungry.

3. A mobilized public and anti-hunger community has created a Vermont where no one goes hungry.

4. A dynamic, proactive organizational culture exists at the Vermont Foodbank that promotes our core values and reflects our vision of a Vermont where no one goes hungry.

To achieve our mission goals, the Vermont Foodbank distributes 11+ million pounds of nutritious food annually through our network of statewide agencies and through our programs, such as:

- Two federal food distribution programs—the Commodity Supplemental Food Program and The Emergency Food Assistance Program—and provides outreach assistance for the federal food benefit Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP);

-Two youth-focused feeding programs: BackPack and School Food Pantry To Go;

-A Mobile Food Pantry program, which delivers fresh, nutritious produce directly to families and seniors at senior and low-income housing units throughout the state; and

- A statewide agricultural gleaning program

Also essential to our mission is providing services and information to Vermonters, including:

- A culinary job skills training program, Community Kitchen Academy, in partnership with two state Community Action Program agencies;

- A nutrition education program, VT Fresh, which exposes food shelf visitors to different produce items and simple methods for preparing them, as well as providing them the ingredients and recipe to take home;

- An annual statewide hunger conference;

- Tracking hunger and poverty rates in Vermont communities and reporting on the

The Vermont Foodbank has a dedicated fundraising staff and resources to focus on individual giving and grant funding, as well as cause-related marketing, Foodbank-run events (e.g., our annual Hunger Action Conference), and third-party hosted events, such as the Harpoon Point to Point bike ride and the Magic Hat Mardi Gras celebration. Foodbank funding sources include private foundations, corporations (through grants and sponsorships), government agencies (federal and state), and individuals, who comprise more than 55 percent of our support. The VFB staff focuses considerable efforts on donor retention (through the direct mail program), and on increased donor cultivation and relationship-building, especially at the major donor level, which includes cultivation by the CEO and other executive officers.

With our three distribution centers (Barre, Brattleboro, Rutland) we have localized distribution which has resulted in more food in those communities. We have expanded services to youth, to help ensure optimal learning and health. More seniors for whom transportation is a challenge, have access to healthy food through our mobile food pantries statewide.

We struggle to find a consistent source of donated fresh food.