The Bernie Buzz

We are thankful to have over 200 food shelves, meal sites and organizations providing food assistance throughout Vermont. It has been reported that community food shelves serve as many as 86,000 Vermonters each year, with food coming from both local and national resources, including local Vermont farms and grocery stores. Read on below for information on how to find a food shelf or meal site near you.

One of the beautiful things about representing the great state of Vermont is that we have some of the best employee-owned companies in the country and I am very proud of that fact. This week, I invited one of those companies — the King Arthur Baking Company, headquartered in Norwich, Vermont — to come to Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about their good work.

The Bernie Buzz team had a chance to sit down with April and learn more about what a day in the life of a nurse midwife looks like – and why people may choose to work with a midwife. April also told us about the challenges facing rural health care, and midwifery in particular. She explains that when rural hospitals are struggling, they usually start by closing their labor and delivery units, as we are sadly seeing now at Copley Hospital.

On July 4th, while Americans should have been celebrating 249 years of our democracy, President Trump signed into law the most dangerous piece of legislation in modern U.S. history. Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” — passed by just one vote in the Senate — is a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the top 1% and a death sentence for tens of thousands of low-income Americans. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, this bill gives $1 trillion in tax breaks to the very rich paid for by slashing health care, nutrition and education for the working class.

As a high school basketball player and track athlete – and even more as a parent and grandparent – I know how meaningful it can be to have a good coach and role model. Andrew Tripp of U-32 High School in East Montpelier has just wrapped up his 37th year of coaching earlier this month. Andrew has worked with hundreds of cross-country runners, Nordic skiers, and track athletes to become better, stronger, and faster. But he has also coached them to become people who know how to work together. The Bernie Buzz sat down with Andrew to hear how he got involved in coaching, his love for working with our young Vermonters and why he keeps coming back, season after season.

To my mind, it is extremely important that we not only remember the agricultural history and values that have shaped Vermont and made this state special, but that we also help our communities — especially the next generation — stay connected to farming. Despite many changes in the industry and the decline of family farms over the years, one thing has remained the same: opportunities through 4-H.