Lawmakers raise $4,000 for Foodbank

May 04, 2008

Daniel Barlow
Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER - Tensions tend to run high at the end of legislative sessions, and this year two members of the Vermont House decided to redirect that energy into something productive. Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas, D-Bradford, and Rep. Willem Jewett, D-Ripton, launched a food drive challenge during the final week of the legislative session. The final tally was $4,002 raised by lawmakers, lobbyists and Statehouse staff as of Saturday morning. "Things get a little heated around here this time of year," said Copeland-Hanzas last week. "We saw challenging each other to a food drive as a really easy way to blow off some steam."

Introducing the challenge on the House floor early in the week, Jewett noted that just as lawmakers in Montpelier were tightening the state's fiscal belt this year, Vermonters across the state were doing the same with their household budgets.

"We're in a position to help out those who need assistance," he said, urging members to donate this week.

The legislative food drive, which is part of a larger effort at businesses, nonprofits and charities across the state, comes as the economy is in a downturn. Poverty activists say the crunch is sending more working Vermonters to local food shelves for meals. That trend is playing out in state and federal assistance programs. According to the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, 56,000 Vermonters received food stamp assistance in March 2008 - the largest number since 1994.

"The people we are seeing are the ones who are working, but they still can't make ends meet," explained Edward Fox, the chief operating officer of the Vermont Foodbank, the organization that will receive the funds. "They try to pay all their bills, and the food budget is one of the few that can be considered flexible."

Copeland-Hanzas said the goal was to get all the state representatives and senators to sign onto the food drive. As the session came to a close Saturday, that goal had reached every lawmaker who was on hand during the final days.

"This drive is coming at a time when we are all preparing to leave Montpelier," she said. "So we have some legislators cleaning out their apartments and bringing their unopened nonperishables down."

But many of the donations came in the form the Foodbank prefers: cash. Because the organization purchases its food through a number of sources and can use financial donations to leverage more donations, every donated dollar becomes $3.

"We can turn that one dollar into a lot of food," Fox said.

May 04, 2008

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