About Food Insecurity in Bennington County
Food insecurity–an inability to access enough healthy food to meet basic needs because of financial constraints–is a serious problem across the state of Vermont, and has only worsened in light of COVID-19.
The National Food Access and Covid Research Team (NFACT) reports that 29% of respondent households in Vermont were classified as food insecure at some point between March and September 2020. More than 2/3 (69%) of these households were persistently food insecure (both food insecure before COVID-19 and since the start of the pandemic). Households with greater odds of being food insecure during this timeframe include households without a college degree, households with children, and households with a job loss or disruption during the pandemic (2.4 times greater odds)—38.7% of households with a job disruption experienced food insecurity compared to 20.6% of households without a job disruption. Nearly 50% of Vermonters experienced job loss or disruption during the pandemic.