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meals, a market, cooking classes and more to Chittenden County residents experiencing food insecurity.

UVM researchers estimate that 40 percent of Vermonters experienced food insecurity in 2022. Meanwhile, Feeding Chittenden helps feed more than 12,000 people a year.

“I feel like this is an answer,” Brandom said, as he criss-crossed the Burlington area in a boxy white van.

Brandom, Feeding Chittenden’s food rescue coordinator, makes trips like these five days a week to grocery stores such as Hannaford, Trader Joe’s and City Market. The stores designate items up for donation with a “Food Shelf” label, and Brandom is left to search fridges and freezers to snatch as much as he can. He begins his day at 8 a.m., and he hopes to bring back fresh produce before the Feeding Chittenden doors open at 9.

Once he scours the shelves, Brandom returns to the organization’s headquarters at 228 N. Winooski Avenue in Burlington to help put away the bounty and set up Feeding Chittenden’s food market — a self-service setup where people who don’t have enough food can get sustenance, no questions asked.

“You get what you want and that’s all that counts,” said a Burlington resident who declined to give her name as she left with a bag of pork, beans and other items. She has been going to Feeding Chittenden since 2004, she said. “It’s a good place to be.”

Brandom’s job is a sliver of the pie at Feeding Chittenden, where the vast array of offerings separate it from other food relief operations in the area. As one of nine organizations that are part of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, it is able to offer a wealth of diverse programs to underserved Vermonters.

Its headquarters also house CVOEO’s Community Resource Center, which helps connect people experiencing homelessness to medical, transportation or housing resources, among others.

“What sets us apart is just the variety of programs that we provide. It isn’t just about giving people food there,” said Anna Mc-

Mahon, associate director of Feeding Chittenden.

“We’re truly trying to change the way that we’re interacting with marginalized populations so that we can better serve them, and trying to continually evolve our programming to better meet the needs of economically disadvantaged Vermonters,” she said. “I think we’re definitely at the forefront of this in Vermont.”

Brandom’s collections are part of the over 2 million pounds of food the organization procures every year, most of it donated. They are items that have not yet expired and are always safe, but not quite up to snuff to be sold in stores.

For example, many bags of oranges and apples contain only one or two bad ones. The rest of the fruit is usable, but supermarkets ditch the entire bag.

If food does spoil, Feeding Chittenden has an array of trash and compost bins onsite, something Brandom admits didn’t sit right with him when he joined the organization in January.

“I used to feel squeamish about it at first,” he said. “But we’re literally the last possible stop before it gets thrown out.”

A 2016 graduate of the University of Vermont, Brandom said he enjoyed studying sociology because “it felt nice knowing I had answers.” He also majored in environmental science and analyzed food waste systems and poverty, inspiring him to return to the area in 2020 to pick up where he left off.

He arrived at Feeding Chittenden over five months ago after working for City Market Co-op in Burlington, a major supporter of Feeding Chittenden’s work. He enjoys the physical aspects of the job, carrying boxes of food in and out of trucks and always being on his feet, but admits that it’s “put a dent in my running.”

“And I obviously enjoy the aspect of helping people out. That definitely helps me sleep at night,” said Brandom, accelerating through a yellow light — something the self-proclaimed “defensive driver” said he rarely does — to make it back to headquar-