Current News

Vermont Business Magazine On Friday afternoon October 31, Buffalo Mountain Market’s general manager, Emily Hershberger, reached out to a group of community leaders to see how they could work together to help fill the need for food left by the freeze of SNAP benefits. Hardwick Area Food Pantry (HAFP) Director, Stella James, said that fresh soups and stews in to-go containers ready for families and individuals would be the most helpful offering. From there a team quickly mobilized: by Saturday, the team at the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE), had secured donations of local meat from Snug Valley Farm and Saw Mill Brook Farm; on Monday, there was a plan and CAE’s Human Advocacy Director, Kate O’Neil, took point on coordinating logistics; and on Wednesday, a team of volunteers and staff members from those convening organizations and businesses were working in the Community Room at the Food Hub in Hardwick, making gallons of soup.  

Vermont Business Magazine First Children’s Finance Vermont (FCF VT) has announced the latest recipients of the Make Way for Kids (MWFK) Infant and Toddler Capacity Building Grants, supporting early childhood entrepreneurs who are expanding access to high-quality, affordable child care across the state. This round of grants will help 23 programs in 10 counties open or expand, creating hundreds of new child care spaces and dozens of new jobs statewide — with a focus on serving infants and toddlers, the age groups facing Vermont’s most significant shortage of available slots.

Vermont Business Magazine Danville School District has been awarded a highly competitive School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). The award will fund critical safety upgrades that strengthen the district’s ability to protect students and staff while fostering a supportive, inclusive learning environment. The federal grant, totaling $317,000 will support three major infrastructure improvements.

Vermont Business Magazine The Attorney General’s Office today announced that Paul A. Williams (a.k.a. Anthony L. Williams), 60, of Morrisville, Vermont, was sentenced in Vermont Superior Court, Lamoille Criminal Division, for a felony conviction of Caregiver Sexual Abuse of a Vulnerable Adult. The charge brought against Mr. Williams was the result of an investigation conducted by the Morrisville Police Department and the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit (MFRAU). The investigation determined that Williams, a licensed nursing assistant, sexually assaulted an elderly vulnerable adult who was a resident of The Manor nursing home in Morrisville, where Williams was employed. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund (VILDF) today announced that it has raised more than $500,000 from over 1250 donors across the state since its launch on May 8, 2025. The organization has a goal to raise $1 million to create a sustainable immigration legal defense system in Vermont. The rapid rate of fundraising is because of a groundswell of support all over Vermont. The funds raised are from not just planned events, but also spontaneous gatherings – concerts, parties, art auctions, church gatherings – by people motivated to uphold the right to due process for all persons as it is enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution.

Vermont Business Magazine Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity held a community groundbreaking ceremony for its newest project — a permanently affordable duplex home for two local families — on Wednesday at 804 North Main Street. Some 40 residents came to the event. Comments welcoming the community effort came from Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski, Select Board Chair Charlie Morse, and Bill McCollough, Commandant and Vice-President of Student Affairs at Norwich University. Rev. Jay Voorhees of the United Methodist Church of Northfield offered the blessing of the site, which was followed by the ceremonial “shovels in the ground.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Saves retirement program has earned a national award for expanding retirement access to working Vermonters, Treasurer Pieciak announced today. The 2025 Excellence in Innovation Award, presented by the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and Pension & Investment Magazine, recognized the Partnership for a Dignified Retirement (PDR) for outstanding achievement in financial inclusion and program innovation. PDR is an inter-state consortium of public retirement savings programs in Vermont, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Nevada, and Minnesota. Together, they manage about 130,000 retirement accounts collectively saving over $200 million. The partnership lowers costs and improves efficiencies across state programs. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor (VDOL) is announcing the “Work Your Way” Job Fair Series, a statewide event for part-time and seasonal hiring. The series will take place on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at five American Job Centers across the state, providing job seekers with the flexibility to attend the location closest to them. 

Vermont Business Magazine Saint Michael’s College will host alumnus and National Public Radio’s Pentagon reporter Tom Bowman ’77 to speak on Veterans’ Day. Bowman has worked for NPR since 2006, after nine years at the Baltimore Sun, also reporting on the Pentagon. He will speak about his career as a reporter, including his experience covering 9/11 in Washington, D.C., reporting on the ground from combat zones, and the current climate of journalism covering politics and federal systems. The talk will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 11, in the Dion Family Student Center’s Roy Room (3rd floor). The event is free and open to the public. 

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.11 per gallon, up 4.7 cents per gallon from last week's $3.06/g.  The lowest price in the state yesterday was $2.85/g while the highest was $3.75/g, a difference of 90.0 cents per gallon. The national average price of gasoline has risen 4.8 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.03/g today.

Vermont Business Magazine GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) today announced that it has entered into a technology licensing agreement with TSMC for 650V and 80V Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology. This strategic move will accelerate GF’s next generation of GaN products for datacenter, industrial and automotive power applications and provide U.S.-based GaN capacity for a global customer base. GF will qualify the licensed GaN technology at its manufacturing facility in Burlington, Vermont, leveraging the site’s expertise in high-voltage GaN-on-Silicon technology to accelerate volume production for customers seeking next-generation power devices. Development is set for early 2026, with production to begin later in the year. 

Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets Looking for a place to list your farmstand, u-pick, events, tours, or farm stay? The Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing (VDTM) manages VermontVacation.com, the best place to reach visitors. VDTM's trip-planning directory is the largest searchable tourism database in Vermont, with more than 180,000 unique users annually. A basic listing is free and gives you access to the statewide events calendar—great tools to help bring more visitors to your farm.