Funding cuts and uncertainty, but community steps up

Though the Charlotte Food Shelf relies heavily on donations from the Charlotte community, it also completes a large monthly order to the Vermont Foodbank for a variety of perishables and non-perishables, such as vegetables, fruit and meat, depending on what they have available. We receive a sizeable discount from the foodbank on these orders, giving us maximum bang for the buck in providing healthy nutrition for our clients. As Peggy Sharpe, president of the food shelf says, “We literally get tons of food from them.”

Unfortunately, the Vermont Foodbank is not exempt from the ongoing federal funding cuts we’ve been hearing so much about lately. According to an article in the Burlington Free Press (Sydney P. Hakes, April 2), a dozen truckloads of food for hungry Vermonters has been canceled because of federal funding cuts. The missing truckloads of food, intended to serve people across the state over the course of the year, will affect about 80 Vermont community partners.

Local food shelves, banks and pantries say this is a particularly bad time for this to be happening. Demand has been rising in the past few years, and combined with higher prices at the grocery store, an expensive housing market and higher tariffs, we are seeing extra-high needs for supplementary food.

Even before the cancellation of the 12 food trucks, the federal government had cut a previously received grant of $30,000 designated for the purchase of food from local farms, resulting in reduced food availability for those who really need it and a negative impact on local economies.

The Vermont Foodbank is communicating its concerns to the state legislature in hopes that the state can do something to patch some of the holes caused by the recent federal funding cuts. While the foodbank doesn’t expect the state to make up the entire shortfall, they are hoping that new policies will make it possible for Vermonters to have access to healthy, nutritious food.

Also, unsettling is the news that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is cutting $1 billion in federal funding for schools, food banks and other food assistance programs. Without this federal funding, there will be less healthy, perishable food available to the people who use the 300 partner programs across the state.

We have called Peter Welch’s office several times for more information regarding federal funding cuts and how these cuts will affect Vermonters but have not heard back.

Meanwhile, the wonderful, generous Charlotte community continues to come through with donations of money, time and produce. We could not do this without you, and we cannot thank you enough. Your gifts are so important and much, much appreciated. Your donations go far in helping food-insecure families get the nutrition they need.

A special thank you to Charlotte Fire and Rescue personnel who contributed 144 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to the food shelf. And thank you, Mickey West and The Red Onion Café, for the scrumptious red onion pastries, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel for the donations of bags of non-perishable foods. And thank you to Christine Lobel, Jocelyn Schermerhorn, Cecily Stokes-Prindle, John Henry Siedecki, Diane Cote (in memory of Joan Braun), Katherine Arthaud, Deborah Cook, Katherine Nolan and Stephen Kiernan for your generous donations. You are all awesome. All your help is so appreciated.

Our schedule is the second and fourth Wednesdays, 4-6 p.m., and Saturdays, 9-11 a.m., of the month, unless otherwise noted. Speaking of which, please note: The food shelf will be closed the week of April 20 for renovations, and there will be no food distributions on Wednesday, April 23, and Saturday, April 26.

For applications for grant assistance, forms are available at the food shelf and on the website. Applicants must reside in Charlotte or North Ferrisburgh.

If you would like to donate to the Charlotte Food Shelf, you can use your PayPal account or your credit or debit card. If you prefer to donate via check, you can make checks payable to Charlotte Food Shelf and mail to: P.O. Box 83, Charlotte, VT 05445. For more information, call 802-425-2402.

A convenient way to support the food shelf is to sign up for monthly donations through PayPal, which will allow you to spread your donations out over the year.

The Charlotte Food Shelf is a nonprofit tax-exempt organization. Gifts are tax deductible within the guidelines. You can also make a contribution by visiting this website.