WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month awarded the contract for the Farmers to Families Food Box program in Vermont to two out-of-state companies rather than a Vermont business and local groups that had previously run the program.
The change, announced Sept. 17, means that Boston-based Costa Fruit & Produce and Houston-based Sysco Corp. will now be the contractors in charge of putting together the weekly boxes of fruits, vegetables, dairy products and chicken for those in need in Vermont. Sysco is responsible for the Upper Valley counties of Orange and Windsor, as well as Orleans, Grand Isle and Essex counties. Costa was awarded a contract for the rest of the state.
The federal program began in mid-May as a way to help meet the increased need for food assistance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But some in Vermont say the program seemed poorly organized from the start and the recent change in contractors may mean less local food gets to hungry Vermonters this fall.
U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., wrote a letter on Friday to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue expressing their concerns that “boxes allocated for distribution in Vermont reach their intended recipients rapidly, without waste, and in a manner that resembles the previous successful distribution.” They also worried about reaching as many families “and that Vermont farms will not be able to participate in the program as they have before.”
Through August, the program was run in Vermont primarily by the Enosburg Falls, Vt.-based Abbey Group, a family-owned food service management company, with some boxes also coming from the Norwich-based nonprofit Willing Hands. They worked with local distributors to fill the boxes and then got them to people in need. The Abbey Group, whose USDA contract for the program totaled $16.4 million, partnered with the Vermont Foodbank and the Vermont National Guard to distribute the boxes at events around the state.
“It’s made an enormous difference,” said John Sayles, Vermont Foodbank CEO.
The program, which is authorized under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to spend up to $4 billion on food, has so far provided nearly 100 million boxes to people in need around the country. That includes about 600,000 boxes in Vermont, said Sayles. Some have gone to people in the Upper Valley, including through an event held at the Thetford Academy in late May that drew more than 500 cars.
Each month since May, the program distributed more than 1 million pounds of fruit, vegetables, milk, cheese, other dairy products and meat in Vermont, much of it from the state’s farms, Sayles said.
There was “no way the Foodbank could have distributed that volume of food that quickly,” he said. It’s “not set up to do that.”
Willing Hands provided about 7,000 boxes of food to people in the Upper Valley on both sides of the Connecticut River from mid-May through Sept. 18, said Gabe Zoerheide, Willing Hands executive director.
In total, Willing Hands took in $188,000 for the boxes, or $27 per box, which the organization used to buy products primarily from local growers, Zoerheide said in a Monday phone interview. Willing Hands delivered the boxes to six to 10 of its partner organizations each week.
Both Sayles and Zoerheide said the boxes were welcomed by recipients.
Willing Hands “got a lot of good feedback that it worked really well,” Zoerheide said.
But it didn’t make sense for Willing Hands even to apply to participate in the program this fall because the requirements didn’t suit the small organization, he said.
“Unfortunately for us and for the folks that are supporting local food with these purchases, the direction that they chose to go was not one that fit our model,” Zoerheide said.
The changes to the program made it seem to Zoerheide as though the USDA “wanted to deal with fewer contractors.”
The USDA’s Sept. 17 press release announcing its decision said the contracts were awarded “based on the pricing submitted for the delivery locations proposed, box content, last mile delivery plans, means testing compliance, and support of small and local/regional food systems.”
Sayles told Seven Days last week that he suspected Costa won out in Vermont because it had a lower bid than The Abbey Group.
Willing Hands’ board has allocated some of its own funds to continue distributing about half as many boxes, 200 to 250, each week to food shelves and other partners around the region, he said. Given the uncertainties surrounding the future of the pandemic, Zoerheide said, he and his staff are “as much concerned about the future as we are the present.”
Nina Hansen, vice president of operations for The Abbey Group, said the company was glad to help feed Vermonters in need through the program.
“We came together and made it work and could not be more proud of our state and the people who live here,” Hansen said in a Monday email. “We are happy to know that our friends and neighbors will still receive food through this program even though we did not win the latest iteration of this contract.”
The Abbey Group and Costa Fruit & Produce also previously worked with the New Hampshire Food Bank to distribute the food boxes in the Granite State, Hansen said. Neither company received the New Hampshire contract in the most recent round, she said. The Delaware-based Vincent Farms now is the contractor for the program in all New Hampshire counties.
The Vermont Foodbank is working with Costa and Sysco to determine how best to distribute boxes next month, Sayles said. He said it’s not yet clear how the Sysco boxes will get distributed, but the Food Bank is working with the Abbey Group to make sure boxes get to the counties for which Sysco has been awarded the contract. Sayles expects October will be the last month of the program.
Sean Buchanan, vice president of sales for Costa, declined comment for this story.
While the Foodbank is grateful for the Farmers to Families program, Sayles said he would prefer the federal government increase the benefit available to people under the federal food stamp program, known nationally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and in Vermont as 3Squares Vermont.
“That’s the sustainable way to get people the resources they need,” he said.
Registration for Farmers to Families Food Box distributions next month, including events in Newbury, Vt. on Oct. 9 and Springfield, Vt. on Oct. 15, is online at https://humanresources.vermont.gov/food-help. People should register before 4 p.m. the day before the event.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
