News

Food box bids continue to raise concerns

By Keith Whitcomb Jr.
Staff Writer
Vermont’s Congressional delegation is once again raising concerns about the Farmers to Families Food Box program. On Friday, Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, and House Rep. Peter Welch, signed a letter sent to Secretary of Agriculture-designate Tom Vilsack saying there had been issues with the program under the Trump administration and urging him to look into it.

“Despite Vermont having a well-established network for the (Farmers to Families Food Box) program, Global Trading Partners is not using these resources and has failed to communicate even the most basic information to the state and Vermont Foodbank,” Welch and Leahy wrote in a joint statement. Sanders’ signature was on the letter, but he wasn’t listed in the statement.

“Our offices learned this week that Global Trading Partners told one local food shelf leader she would need to drive to the next county and wait in line for hours, just for the possibility of receiving boxes when the delivery truck arrived,” Welch and Leahy stated. “We are sure you will agree that this is a complete failure on the part of the vendor, which is required under their contract with USDA to provide last mile delivery.”

The program rolled out in May, in Vermont, and was largely managed by the Vermont Foodbank and its partners. Foodbank CEO John Sayles said Tuesday the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded bids for the food in two-month stints. The first went to the Vermont-based Abbey Group, but in subsequent rounds the bids went to out-of-state vendors who used less Vermont-produced food, and in some cases, none at all. The delegation raised concerns about that with former Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

“The Abbey Group was, of course, a Vermont company, and putting Vermont food in the boxes, and we were very happy with that working relationship,” said Sayles. “The others we were all able to work with and kept them incorporated into the system we had created in Vermont to make sure we’re touching every community and that the program was really successful.”

The program was created in response to the pandemic to give farmers a place to sell their products and to get food to those left food-insecure from the pandemic’s economic fallout.

The USDA announced the food box program would end in December, prompting the Vermont Foodbank to use $1.4 million to contract with Abbey Group to carry it through locally into February, later deciding it could contract to the Vermont Farmers to Families Food Box program through March. Then in January, the USDA announced it had extended the program through April.

Global Trading Partners LLC doing business as Rastelli Global, has the current bid, which has drawn the Congressional delegation’s ire. Their letter asks Vilsack — who was secretary of Agriculture under the Obama Administration — to award the March and April bid to a different company. Also, it asks that a harder look be taken at the company’s past performance and its existing local contacts. The delegation’s letter also claims Global Trading Partner’s bid was too low to deliver what it promised and that its five distribution sites aren’t enough, nor are they spread out properly. Attempts to reach Global Trading Partners Tuesday weren’t successful.

“We had a preliminary conversation with (Global Trading Partners) and said here’s how we operate the program in Vermont, can you do this? And then we just didn’t hear anything back from them,” said Sayles, adding that he’s been left to understand they found a nonprofit to work with some churches, however Vermont Foodbank had to step in and connect them with another nonprofit to supply food in the upper valley.

He said the amount of food to be given out is similar to past rounds, which is good, but the Foodbank has been largely left out of this process.

“It’s great that the food is coming to Vermont,” he said. “We wish that it was distributed in a way that’s more equitable to Vermonters.”

Sayles said Perdue was head of the USDA when the bid to Global Trading Partners was awarded.

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