Right to Food Farmstand Gift Card Pilot
Dignified and nourishing food is a human right. The Farmstand Gift Card Pilot Program is an exploratory attempt to model this right in Essex, Jericho, and Underhill.
Food insecurity in Vermont has quadrupled in the past six years, with 40% of Vermonters shown to experience food insecurity within a given year. A myriad of food access spaces, from food pantries to community sharing sheds and mutual-aid movements, have emerged to meet this growing need. As critical as these food access programs are, their growing necessity should urge us to look upstream and ask questions of why and how: why do Vermonters lack access to food in the first place? And how can we secure food as a fundamental human right while also facilitating relationships between residents and local farms, supporting local farmers, and recirculating money into our local economy?
The Farmstand Gift Card Pilot Program was born of these questions. The program, funded by the Essex Rotary Club and administered by the Jericho Underhill Food Hub, distributed thirty $210 farmstand gift cards to participants at local food pantries in Essex, Jericho, Underhill, and a few surrounding towns. Each participant chose to receive their gift card at one of four farms – The Farm Upstream, Jericho Settler’s Farm, Chamberlin’s Farm, and Paul Mazza’s Farm – and were asked to complete two voluntary surveys on their experience.
The response to this pilot has sent a clear message: our community wants this program. All thirty participant spots were filled within four hours, followed by a lengthy waitlist of households hoping to participate. When chatting with program participants throughout the summer, I have been struck by how many participants spoke not only about financial barriers to food but also about their excitement to purchase food locally and seasonally. Participants repeatedly described feeling welcomed by farmers, enjoying the experience of visiting farmstands, and appreciating the opportunity to purchase fresh food in a way that felt empowering rather than stigmatizing. In a state as rural and agricultural as Vermont, local food is more than nourishment: it is woven into our landscapes, our culture, and our social lives. And when financial barriers are reduced, Vermonters are ready and eager to participate in this shared food culture.
The promise of this program extends well beyond the value of the gift cards themselves. Every dollar invested circulates through local farms, strengthening farm viability while keeping food dollars within the local economy. At the same time, participants build relationships with farmers and fellow consumers, helping farms become a thriving “third space” where all town residents feel welcome to relax, play, and socialize across socioeconomic lines. Although these benefits are not easily quantifiable, they accumulate with time and manifest in various spaces: in stronger relationships between neighbors and farms, more resilient local economies, and food access rooted in dignity, reciprocity, and community rather than emergency intervention.
More fundamentally, this pilot reinforced to me that improving food access requires us to look upstream at the circumstances that lead households to seek assistance in the first place. Many participants shared that chronic health conditions, disabilities, mental health challenges, caregiving responsibilities, and frustration navigating an overburdened health care system played a significant role in their food insecurity. Their stories remind me that food insecurity is rarely an isolated problem but rather a dynamic intertwining of health, housing, transportation, and economic precarity. While food programs such as this one and other charitable food spaces are essential, they must be paired with structural efforts to secure nutritious food and sufficient healthcare for all our neighbors.
Submitted by Grace Gray, August 14, 2026
