Alliance “Legislative Happy Hour” – Reach Up and CIS – 1/30, 3:30 pm

This winter, the Alliance will be hosting four virtual “Legislative Happy Hours” leading up to this year’s ECDL. Each session will focus on one or two issues from the Alliance’s 2023 Legislative Agenda. Joined by representatives from the lead organizations, participants will be able to hear a brief legislative update regarding the issues and ask follow-up questions. 

The first session will be held Monday, January 30 from 3:30 to 4:15 pm. It will focus on two topics – Reach Up and CIS. The session will be led by Amy Rose from Voices for Vermont's Children and Matt Levin from the Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance.

Click to register on Zoom.

HFV Hosts School Nutrition Day at the Legislature – 1/25

Hunger Free Vermont (HFV) will be joined by school nutrition professionals from across the state at the State House on January 25 to advocate for a permanent Universal School Meals program funded off-the-top of the Education Fund. HVF will be handing out snacks to legislators, testifying in committees, having one-on-one meetings with legislators, and more.

For more information about the Universal School Meals initiative, visit the HFV website. For any questions about School Nutrition Day at the Legislature, contact Teddy Waszazak at twaszazak@hungerfreevt.org or 781-219-8770.

Alliance Monthly Equity Discussion – “Talking About Activism in the Classroom” – 1/27, 1:00 pm

Join a group of peers and colleagues from the early childhood community to engage in sustained learning about anti-racism, equity, and inclusion. The Alliance hosts a monthly, salon-style Equity Discussion Group via Zoom, and the next session is coming up on Friday, January 27 at 1:00 pm.

This month’s session, “Talking about Activism in the Classroom,” will be facilitated by Vicky Senni, director of Turtle Island Children's Center, a nature- and play-based early childhood center in Montpelier. Vicky has been an activist for social change for over a decade – specifically in the fields of education, food/nutrition, and labor rights – and a longtime participant in the SPARK Teacher Education Institute, helping educators integrate social justice concepts within the curriculum. 

This Equity Salon will focus on talking about activism in the classroom, how to involve children, and the role that we as parents and educators have in the building of a better world for all humans and living things. 

Email Taylor Hughey, Alliance Outreach Manager, at taylor@vecaa.org to register.

HFV Farm Bill Nutrition Coalition Learning Session – 1/30, 12:00 pm

Hunger Free Vermont (HFV) is hosting a virtual information session on January 30 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm to go over their process and goals for facilitating a collaborative initiative to finalize a set of Farm Bill Nutrition Title priority recommendations to share with Vermont’s Members of Congress in mid-February 2023. 

These recommendations will advocate to strengthen and improve programs like 3SquaresVT, farm-to-school programs, and food bank programs. HFV will share key findings from the statewide Community Survey on federal nutrition programs, and how they led to the draft set of priority recommendations attached here.

Register for the information session or visit the HFV website to learn more about the Farm Nutrition Bill.

Legislature, Advocates Begin Consideration of Governor’s Recommended FY24 Budget

Last week the Governor gave his annual Budget Address, which marked the formal start of the Legislature’s budget-writing process for the upcoming 2024 Fiscal Year (FY24).

The Governor’s speech was accompanied by the release of the Governor’s Recommended Budget, which is used by legislative committees as the starting point for their deliberations. The House will be working on their FY24 budget until mid-March, with the Senate doing most of their budget work in March and April.

As usual, the Governor’s speech laid out the broad outlines of his proposals, but not the details. We won’t find out the specifics until later this week or early next week. The Governor said that his proposed budget includes a $48 million increase in funding for CCFAP, to allow for families with incomes up to 400% of FPL to be eligible for the program. The funding source for this increase was not specified. If the Legislature also feels there is capacity to spend that amount (with or without raising taxes), it’s not clear they will agree to spend it the way the Governor proposes.

The Governor has also proposed investments in housing development/accessibility and funding for the continuation of emergency housing (GA) programs.

Until the budget is passed and signed this spring, none of these proposals (in whatever form they eventually may take) will go into effect.

State agencies and departments will be sharing more details of their proposals to various House committees in the coming days. Meanwhile, Alliance members continue to advocate for additional funding for other initiatives not specifically mentioned by the Governor in his budget address.

For more information on all these issues, please reach out to the lead organizations on the issues on our Legislative Agenda, who can help you follow the details of the discussions.

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The Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance is a program of the Vermont Community Loan Fund.