MacKenzie Scott’s Gift to Vermont

The Vermont Foodbank is deeply honored to be selected as one of the recipients of MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropy. This is such a thoughtful and truly meaningful gift that will help so many in our state, including the one in three VT residents who are facing hunger as a result of the pandemic. We are overwhelmed with gratitude at the opportunity this presents to ensure everyone in our state has enough food.  

We also appreciate that we don’t do this work alone. The dedicated support of our community has helped the Foodbank better serve our neighbors and raise the quality of our work to a place where a philanthropist like Ms. Scott considers us a worthy investment. This recognition is a testament to what we are all doing together to create a Vermont where everyone has the food we all need to thrive. 

Ms. Scott’s gifts to the Vermont Foodbank, Feeding America, and several other anti-hunger organizations across the country will help usher in an important moment in the fight against hunger. But this crisis is more massive than any one philanthropist can solve, and we hope this can transform into a movement of people coming together to ensure that all are fed. 

Now it’s up to all of us to harness this moment, coming together as a community to leverage this for all it can be –an opportunity to change the conversation about hunger and what access to food looks like in our state and across the nation. If we were to use this to continue business as usual–or replaced funds we would otherwise raise—it would be a missed opportunity for people in Vermont.  

This gift will support our work addressing the hunger crisis brought about by the pandemic, while allowing us to work with communities to develop innovative solutions to address hunger in the long term. We will leverage this to engage more deeply with our community partners and neighbors around the work that we all do, so that a diversity of voices can come together to create solutions to hunger, together. It is an opportunity to address root causes of hunger, poverty, and racism through our work. This is our chance to think big as a community, and to accelerate the projects we’ve all been dreaming up and planning for over the years.  

We look forward to working together to plan for the next chapter of our work to ensure all are fed and will share more about what that will look like in the coming months.