Grants unveiled for health, dairy sectors

Vermont’s health care and dairy sectors are next in line to see pandemic-related relief grants become available this week. Two new programs for housing aid launched on Monday. 

Applications open Friday with about $275 million for the health care sector and $25 million for dairy operations. This funding, backed by federal aid dollars, was approved by the Legislature in a series of relief bills last month.

While state officials on Tuesday acknowledged there’s much more to do to help these essential sectors, they hoped this funding would help ease the towering financial pressures of the pandemic. 

Mike Smith, Vermont’s health and human services secretary, said, though the state provided some early assistance to this sector, much more is needed to ensure health providers and service organizations stay afloat during and after the crisis. He also noted the health sector’s vast economic impact. 

“Health care spending in Vermont constitutes roughly 20 percent of Vermont’s gross state product,” Smith said at Tuesday’s press briefing with Gov. Phil Scott. 

Smith also noted his team worked hard to make the grants program inclusive. 

“We intentionally designed the application process to support providers and organizations of every size and type to ensure equity in the process and to encourage all eligible providers to seek funding,” he said. 

Once it opens Friday, applicants will have four weeks to complete the process, and grants will be awarded only after all applications have been reviewed. Applications to this needs-based program will be accepted until Aug. 15, for grants covering pandemic-related expenses incurred between March 1 and June 15. Health providers and organizations are encouraged to sign up to receive an email notification once the process begins and to receive updates. 

“If providers are not certain they are eligible, we want them to apply anyway,” Smith said. A webinar about the grant process is set for Monday at 6 p.m. 

Smith said a second round of applications will begin in October, for pandemic-related expenses incurred between June 16 and Sept. 30. 

Tuesday’s briefing also focused on dairy, another essential sector hit hard by the pandemic. Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts described the impact on dairy farmers, cheesemakers and value-added businesses.

“When the country shut down, those small businesses that rely on restaurants, colleges, schools and institutions for a paycheck, they were lost,” Tebbetts said. “Income dropped, expenses increased for many.” 

Of the $25 million package, $21.2 is available for family farms, and $3.8 million is allocated for dairy processors, including those who make cheese, yogurt and ice cream, and bottle milk. The online application process launches at noon Friday, and all application forms must be received by Oct. 1. To be eligible, the applying business must have been in operation as of March 1, and all losses and costs must have occurred since March 1 and be pandemic-related. 

Grants will be sent out two to three weeks after an application’s approval, Tebbetts said. The application form is at agriculture.vermont.gov, or applicants may email agrcovidresponse@vermont.gov or call 802-828-2430. 

Tebbetts also said a $5 million relief program for non-dairy farmers is in the works, and producers, farmers markets and slaughterhouses will be included. Grants from working lands programs and assistance for fairs and field days groups will be announced in the coming days.

“Farmers are essential to Vermont's future,” Tebbetts said. “They provide Vermont, New England, New York and the nation fresh, wholesome food that is needed now more than ever.”

— Gareth Henderson