Spring 2026 VECF Grantees

Arlington Area Childcare in Bennington County

Funding will support expansion of the “From Farm to ECE to Farm to Families” initiative, a project designed to address critical gaps in food security and transportation access for children and families in rural Arlington, Vermont. The goal of this project is to create a sustainable, integrated system that connects early childhood education, family support, and community resources through expanding access to fresh, local foods through a Farm to Family model, and addressing transportation barriers using a program vehicle to support children’s access to enrichment opportunities and families’ access to childcare and essential services.

Capstone Community Action Head Start/Early Head Start in Lamoille and Washington Counties

Capstone will use funding to launch a Transportation Fund to support their Head Start families. The Fund will be used to partner with a local rideshare program to transport families without vehicles to the center in Barre, and provide gas cards to families with vehicles at both centers to help offset transportation costs.

Early Care and Learning Partnership in Addison County

The “Wheels: Migrant Family Transportation Support” will help overcome transportation barriers for migrant families with young children through a multi-pronged approach. The project will assist parents in obtaining driver’s privilege cards by supporting study toward the driving permit, driving classes, and assistance with testing and license fees; develop a working relationship with a local career center for car repairs; support local transportation liaisons to coordinate volunteer drivers; create a car seat fund and work with local Fire Departments to assure that car seats are installed and used properly; and explore public transportation options that might make it possible for young children to ride the buses with the supervision of a designated adult.

Greater Falls Family Partnership in Windham County

In partnership with Parks Place Community Resource Center, the Greater Falls Family Partnership will pilot the “Bright Start Transportation Fund” project. This revolving loan fund will provide targeted financial assistance to income-eligible households with young children who are enrolled in WIC, Dr. Dynasaur, and/or Medicaid, as well as families who do not formally qualify for these programs but still experience economic or transportation challenges. Recognizing the high cost of both repairs and vehicle purchases, loans will be designed to contribute toward, rather than fully cover, these expenses. This approach enables the fund to support more families while acknowledging that recipients may combine the loan with other available financial resources.

Lil’ Sunshine Child Care Center in Orange County

Funds will allow Lil’ Sunshine to launch their food program in June as they begin the application process to enroll in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). VECF will cover startup expenses, staffing, and food costs from June 23, 2026, to the start of reimbursement from CACFP in late 2026.

Marble Valley Regional Transit District in Rutland County

Marble Valley Regional Transit District’s (MVRTD) existing network of City-Fixed and Commuter routes play a pivotal role in families’ access to food, employment, medical care, education, and housing. However, gaps in service, particularly during the morning hours, continue to present barriers to families with young children. The City Backup service was designed to fill these gaps by providing flexible, first-call, first-serve transportation outside the fixed-route schedule. Funding will support plans to expand MVRTD’s City Backup transportation service to better support access to early childhood education, childcare, and essential family resources.

Northeast Kingdom Community Action in Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans Counties

Community Connect Mobile Vans is a mobile outreach initiative that brings essential resources directly to families in rural and hard-to-reach communities. The vans provide concrete supports such as food, basic necessities, and connections to wraparound services. They often operate alongside playgroups that foster social connection, strengthen relationships among families, and build community-based support networks. Funding will be used to outfit the vans and fully operationalize this model, allowing services to be deployed quickly and efficiently to the communities that need them most.

Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union in Bennington County

The Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union (SVSU) operates five preschool classrooms designed to support a diverse population, including students with autism diagnoses, speech and language delays, motor delays, and complex medical diagnoses. Students in these populations, as well as more typically developing students, have experienced an increase in feeding challenges ranging from picky eating to Pediatric Feeding Disorders. SVSU will pilot two initiatives: use of an app called Easy Bites, which uses the evidence-based principles of Responsive Feeding to coach both parents and teachers on how to best address picky eating; and formalization of an interdisciplinary feeding team—including a registered dietitian, a speech-language pathologist and/or occupational therapist with pediatric feeding expertise, and a licensed mental health clinician—to work in direct coordination with classroom teachers, special educators, school nurses, and any SLP or OT working with the child.

Steps to End Domestic Violence in Chittenden County

Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) are faced with complex and multilayered barriers to reliable transportation and independence, limiting their capacity to transport their children to school/child care, access food and medical care, and get/maintain jobs. Funding will help Steps establish a trusted partnership with a local organization that offers adult driving lessons, and establish a pool of funds allocated specifically toward removing barriers to parent/family transportation such as driver education and license fees, car registration and inspection expenses, minor vehicle repairs, and microtransit/rideshare costs.

Town of Johnson in Lamoille County

Following the closure of the Sterling Market after the July 2023 floods, Johnson experienced a significant disruption in local food access. While Johnson General Store opened in 2025, it currently lacks the technology required to process WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) Nutrition Program transactions. As a result, WIC participants must travel 10–16 miles to redeem benefits—creating barriers for families with young children, particularly those facing transportation, financial, or time constraints. VECF will fund the installation of an integrated point-of-sale (POS) system at Johnson General Store to enable participation in the Vermont WIC program, improving access to nutritious food for low-income families with young children in Johnson and surrounding rural communities.

Vermont Coalition of Clinics for the Uninsured, Statewide

Bridges to Health’s successful Community Health Worker (CHW) model was designed to assess needs and resources, and tailor solutions to address barriers, for migrant and immigrant families. CHWs are trained on how to navigate transportation and food access barriers, and how to work collaboratively in their regions to improve access. They share educational materials with families so that families have access to important information such as videos in their preferred languages about how to utilize public transportation in Chittenden County, how to get a driver’s license, and how to create emergency family plans. VECF funding will support Bridges to Health as it restructures, rebuilds its CHW team, and transitions to a new fiscal sponsor.

Vermont Kin as Parents, Statewide

Kinship caregivers across Vermont are stepping in to raise children in times of crisis—often with little preparation and even less financial support. Many are grandparents or relatives living on fixed incomes, caring for children under Conditional Custody Orders (CCOs) that require regular transportation to court-ordered visits, medical appointments, school, and services. These transportation requirements are not optional—they are mandated. Yet there is no consistent system in place to help caregivers meet them. Without assistance, transportation barriers can become placement risks. Funding will allow VKAP to expand a statewide transportation support system that combines direct assistance with system-building strategies to ensure families can maintain reliable access to transportation. Core components include direct transportation assistance through gas cards and mileage support, emergency vehicle repairs, and safety-related supports such as tires, inspections, and car seats; establishing partnerships with repair shops and auto dealerships to create a trusted service network for kinship caregivers; and coordination and referral pathways with DCF district offices, family courts, parent child centers, and community partners.

Vital Communities in Orange and Windsor Counties

In 2025, Vital Communities partnered with Shelburne Farms and a group of seven Vermont child care providers to pilot a new food procurement method, allowing smaller programs to order food collectively and access bulk quantities from distributors at lower price points, therefore reducing the cost burden of operating meal programs. The project was designed based on direct input from providers and helped programs increase nutritious food access and local food purchasing, obtain discounted pricing, and decrease provider time spent acquiring food. VECF funding will help support the program in its second year as the group adapts and refines the project model to better meet goals, especially increasing local, nutritious food purchasing and building community relationships with area businesses and partners.