BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – As the problem of food insecurity persists in Addison County, a community organization is offering door to door food delivery – and piloting a new service to help keep up with orders.
As an idea born from the pandemic, Feeding Chittenden began their grocery delivery program in 2021. Their hub in Addison County says they deliver 120-180 orders per month, and with over 200 households signed up for the service, they’re running a waitlist.
Officials at the hub say there are only three food pantries in Addison County, which puts more pressure on the program. To ease the mountain of deliveries and the lack of pantries, they’re piloting food kiosks, where orders would be left until clients could come pick them up.
Stephen Ask of Ferrisburg has been using Feeding Chittenden’s stay at home grocery delivery for six months. He says food is expensive, and mobility challenges with his leg and arm make it difficult to bring goods back from a food bank.
“It’s a blessing, because I don’t have to lug anything up the ramp, or, you know, he brings in puts it on my table, I put it away and I eat it,” said Ask. “It’s very hard to carry milk and food with one hand off this ramp, you got to hold on to the railing. And if you got food and stuff in hand, you can’t hold on to the rail.”
Although it can be a huge relief for people on the receiving end, the Feeding Chittenden program requires quite a bit of effort.
Emmet Moseley of Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity runs Addison County’s food hub, and he says there’s been a steady incline in online orders since the delivery program’s conception in 2021.
“I’ve got people who are twice a month, every single month, and I have people who pop in a few times a year. And it’s really meant to be flexible,” he said.
Some of the families the deliveries serve are migrant farmworkers in the county, and UVM Extension partners with Feeding Chittenden to help get food deliveries to the migrant families in need.
Julissa Vesely of UVM Extension says there are some barriers for food security, like lack of transportation as well as the challenges of being in a new country. She says the deliveries help clients preserve their income so they have better ability to send it back to family who might not be in the US.
“A lot of migrant workers have extremely long work schedules, sometimes working 12 or more hours a day, 65 to 75 hours a week,” said Vesley. “It makes it extremely hard to be able to even go to the grocery store to buy food, much less go to a food pantry.”
The food delivery program is also underway in Chittenden and Grand Isle counties.
