$30.0M in expenses

In fiscal year 2024, vermont foodbank distributed more than 14.5 million pounds of donated food, produce, USDA foods, and purchased food directly to individuals and more than 220 network partners. Of that, a record of 4.5 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables were distributed, and 48% of the food distributed was fresh food (produce, meat, eggs, and dairy). Vermont foodbank also worked with more than 334 vermont farms to purchase, gather and share more than $2.4 million worth of vermont-grown food. During the same period, the foodbank funded more than 480 grants totaling almost $2.7m to network and community partner organizations. These grants, which touched every county in vermont, deepened our impact and helped solve targeted challenges to food access in local communities (examples include increasing refrigeration capacity to enabling purchasing fresh produce from local, small-scale farms). The foodbank worked with more than 21 partners, hospitals, and schools to host fresh food distribution events across all vermont counties, distributing fresh foods to an average of 8,250 households a month. The vermont foodbank continues to see significant increases in expenses over pre-pandemic budgets. Vermont foodbank has relied on reserves to continue to meet this increased level of need in fy24. Revenue in fiscal year 2024 met projections, mainly through private philanthropy and a $1.3m appropriation from the state of vermont. A 2022 study by the university of vermont shows that 2 in 5 people in vermont experienced food insecurity in the 12 months prior. This data is supported by 2023 data shared by the USDA, which also shows a second year in a row of rising food insecurity rates. These studies show that food insecurity is far higher than the 9.6% food insecurity rate vermont saw before the cascading crises of the past three years and is also higher than at any point in 2020 or 2021, during the height of the pandemic impacts. This summer's catastrophic flooding around the state, for a second year in a row, created an additional crisis for our neighbors experiencing hunger and has put additional pressure on the charitable and emergency food network. This level of need is beyond what our network of community organizations was built to address. The need was made starker by rising inflation, higher costs of living, widespread flooding events, and the end of state-supported temporary housing for previously unhoused individuals and families displacing residents and disrupting the patchwork of feeding solutions created around that program. We know from past experience that recovery from any one of these challenges takes time. Food insecurity rates stemming from the economic crisis of 2008-2009 took almost a decade to return to pre-2008 levels. For example, in 2024 vermont foodbank distributed more than 14.5 million pounds of foodpre-pandemic that number was between 6-9 million pounds pre -2008. The vermont foodbank, the state's only food bank, is an integral part of vermont's food security response system. Increased levels of food insecurity over the last two years have strained resources at both vermont foodbank and its network of more than 220 food access agencies (food shelves, meal sites, etc.). Philanthropic support has remained strong, but the resources needed to sustain increased levels of operations are outpacing financial resources. Vermont foodbank is advocating for increased state support to help close this gap and in acknowledgement of the ongoing role vermont foodbank and its partners play in ensuring people in vermont have access to the most basic need-nourishing food. Whether that is due to economic insecurity, a natural disaster, or disruptions in policy and programs at the federal level, vermont foodbank and its partners continue to gather and share nourishing food so that no one in vermont will go hungry.