'Tough pill to swallow': Vermont food groups dial back on assistance as federal funds expire

“Anore Horton, executive director of Hunger Free Vermont, said the austerity measures being deployed in the Kingdom are, or soon will be, taking hold at other feeding organizations in Vermont.

“If you ask an older Vermonter who’s living in St. Johnsbury … ‘We can’t really afford to give you seven, would you be OK with five?’ They’re going to say, ‘Yes,’” Horton said. “And the thing about this that’s so painful is that it took a lot, it took a lot for our older Vermonters in particular to accept the service of getting healthy meals delivered every day.”

Pandemic-era supports such as expanded unemployment benefits, federal child tax credits, free school meals and coronavirus relief aid have disappeared, Horton said.

But the hunger that revenue held at bay is still here.”