Food as a foundation to mental health and connection

VTDigger is well positioned to work with Vermont Care Partners to promote the much needed services of its sixteen respective member agencies which, includes NCSS. They also understand how important it is for our elected officials to know how to support the needs of vulnerable Vermonters.   

This thirteen week series is a collaboration produced by members of the Vermont Care Partners statewide network of sixteen non-profit, community-based agencies providing mental health, substance use and intellectual and developmental disability support.

Below is the third installment of the series from Clara Martin Center that focuses on food as a foundation to mental health and connection.  Meeting the challenges and overcoming the roadblocks in addressing hunger and food insecurity during the pandemic so that everyone in a household can live an active and healthy lifestyle. 

Food as a foundation to mental health and connection

Food (In)security: Keeping food flowing provides connection to people and other helpful resources; offering more than we may ever know. 

Excerpts from article

As with all the Designated Agencies in Vermont, when the pandemic began to impact the communities we serve, the Clara Martin Center recognized that individual needs beyond mental health and substance use services were becoming

more acute. Increased support was necessary to assist the people to access resources and address holistic needs.  

Recent research conducted at the University of Vermont focused on the issue of food insecurity from the year 2020 to 2021.  This study surveyed 441 Vermonters and tracked their responses to questions of food insecurity with the goal of understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this issue.  During this time period, 31.6% of respondents were experiencing food insecurity.  While roughly half of those respondents were food insecure before the pandemic, the other half were newly food insecure during the pandemic with approximately 18% of Vermonters experiencing food insecurity, up from 10% prior to the pandemic.   Read more… 

Link to entire article:

Food as a foundation to mental health and connection