Vt. is 6th Hungriest State in Nation

[cali]

Vt. is 6th Hungriest State in Nation


Barre, Vermont - November 23, 2009

In just a few short days, most Vermonters will be digging in to a big Thanksgiving dinner, but not everyone in the state will have a seat at the table. A new report shows Vermont is the sixth hungriest state in the country.

At the Vermont Foodbank in Barre they gather and share food to nurture thousands of Vermonters each year, this past year more than ever before. The food bank delivered more than 7-and-a-half million pounds of food in 2008. They expect to top 8-million this year.

"The Foodbank has 280 network partners across the state and these are the food shelves and the soup kitchens and the senior centers that we distribute food to. We've seen a 35 to 40-percent increase in demand over the last year," said John Sayles of the Vermont Foodbank:

So a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture may not have shocked these folks, but it did surprise others. The report ranks Vermont as the sixth hungriest in the country, 12- percent of the state's households struggling with food insecurity and relying on food shelves and other organizations for help.

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http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11560618