The Bernie Buzz

John served in the Navy before becoming a farmer. These days you can find John and a team of other dedicated volunteers running the Sheldon Food Shelf, which distributes 30,000 pounds of food and serves 450 Vermont families each month. For decades, they have provided high-quality, nutritious food to the Franklin County community by sourcing food from grocery stores and local farms. The Sheldon Food Shelf goes beyond providing basic necessities such as canned goods and non-perishables. They also provide fresh produce and meat products from our Vermont farmers, and even offer recipes on how to best use that local food.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will be building two new, state-of-the-art community-based outpatient clinics to serve Vermont veterans. The Burlington clinic — the busiest VA clinic in our state — will be replaced by a new 36,000-square-foot facility at the Technology Park in South Burlington that is twice as large as the current clinic. The new facility is expected to begin seeing patients in the spring of 2029.

My office is once again hosting events across Vermont this August for older Vermonters. These celebrations are a great opportunity to come together and enjoy good music, good food, and connect with each other. If you are interested in attending one of these eight events, you can find information about dates and locations below.

For 15 years Caitlin MacLeod-Bluver, the 2025 Vermont Teacher of the Year, has done just that. Caitlin teaches English and history at Winooski High School. But she does more than that. She creates a learning environment where students feel respected, valued and encouraged. Caitlin designs curriculums that recognize the different backgrounds of Winooski students and showcase students’ artwork and writing so families, friends and neighbors can better understand their perspectives and celebrate their accomplishments.

I’m happy to inform you that North Star Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center based out of Springfield, Vermont, has launched a Mobile Health Unit bringing acute, non-emergent, primary care directly to communities in Brattleboro and Bellows Falls — two towns that have long needed greater access to primary healthcare services. Beginning this month the mobile unit will alternate Tuesdays between Brattleboro and Bellows Falls where patients, regardless of their income or insurance status, can receive walk-in primary care.

Vermont is home to more than 6,500 farms, including some 560 dairy farms. And while that number is drastically smaller than it once was when dairy cows dotted much of the landscape, we still have some incredible farms producing truly remarkable products. One of those farms is Kingdom Creamery in East Hardwick, where the Michaud family has been churning out high-quality milk for three generations.