Strong Coalitions Create Strong Policies

(Meeting of the Vermont Farm Bill Coalition

Fall 2011)

Over the last six months, the Hunger Free Vermont team organized a coalition of organizations to begin drafting recommendations for the 2012 Farm Bill.  Throughout our work on the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2012 we often heard from our Congressional Delegation that it is helpful to have Vermonters speak in one voice when they have like or similar recommendations on policy change.  We took this to heart and decided to work towards a set of common recommendations from Vermont for the reauthorization of the Farm Bill which includes critical nutrition programs such as 3SquaresVT (also know as SNAP or Food Stamps nationally), TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program), CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Program), and the USDA Foods Program which provides food for school meal programs. 

You can see the recommendations and list of the coalition team here.  These meetings have been a testament of why Vermont is so special.  Our plan was to use a consensus model on the recommendations and if any one recommendation had strong opposition we agreed to leave it off the list.  What we found was coalition members listened to each other, moved their stakes when necessary, and have now arrived at a comprehensive list of recommendations to best serve Vermonters.  We are proud to be putting this list of recommendations forward to our Congressional Delegation and are looking for more Vermonters and organizations to sign on.  Please consider joining this team to protect and enhance nutrition programs for our state.