Gov. Shumlin urges anti-hunger donations for holiday season

Highlights Food Shelf job training program

Burlington, Vermont – Gov. Peter Shumlin toured the Community Kitchen Academy job training program at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf today and urged Vermonters to remember their less fortunate neighbors who are struggling to feed their families, with donations of money, gift cards, food and volunteered time.

“Thanksgiving is the time to raise awareness about the Vermonters struggling to feed their families nutritious meals during this holiday season and throughout the year,” Gov. Shumlin said. He noted that the Chittenden food shelf alone plans on helping 2,700 families on Thanksgiving – and a total of 12,000 over the course of a year. There are food shelves in communities across the state, in partnership with the Vermont Foodbank in Barre, working throughout the year to keep about 86,000 Vermonters fed.


More than 37,000 Vermont households rely on federal food USDA assistance through the 3SquaresVT program (previously known as Food Stamps), which provides about $84 per week for a family of three.  Supplemental assistance is required for many families to ensure they have adequate nutrition; advocates estimate that one in every seven Vermont households faces what is known as ‘food insecurity.’

Vermont has taken steps to reduce hunger, including:
•             Funding Community Action Centers to help support their food shelves;
•             Allowing seniors and disabled to get their 3 Squares benefit deposited directly into their checking account to help reduce the stigma that some feel about getting assistance – one of three states to do so.
•             Increased eligibility for 3Squares benefits from 150 percent to 185 percent of federal poverty level to help more families.

Harry Chen, Vermont’s Commissioner of Health, said reducing the percentage of households that cannot afford to purchase an adequate supply of nutritious food is one key goal of the state’s Healthy Vermonters 2020 targets. He said lack of adequate nutrition over time can lead to malnutrition, obesity and chronic illness.

Rob Meehan, Director of the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, said hunger programs are facing tighter budgets and other challenges, and creative programs like the Community Kitchen Academy provide additional assistance.

The Community Kitchen Academy is operated in partnership with the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, the Foodbank’s largest network agency. Each Community Kitchen Academy session provides 13 weeks of intensive classroom and hands-on instruction in culinary and technical skills to underemployed and unemployed Vermonters. Students, who are taught by professional chefs, learn by transforming food gathered from within the community that may otherwise go to waste into nutritious meals for those in need, and they graduate prepared for entry level employment within the culinary-hospitality industry.

“We have seen a significant drop in donated food in the past year,” said Meehan. “The Community Kitchen program helps us utilize food that would otherwise be wasted.”

Vermonters looking for ways to help local food shelves and the Foodbank can visit http://www.vtfoodbank.org/ for options and information, the Governor said.