Supporting Local Businesses and Addressing Community Needs

Vermont and many other states have built creative strategies to access state or federal funding to pay restaurants to provide meals to those in need. This strategy leverages outside funding to meet immediate community needs during the crisis while and helps local restaurants and food producers continue production and retain staff. California launched “Great Plates Delivered: Home Meals for Seniors.” This program delivers three prepared meals daily to seniors enrolled in the program. Restaurants that provide the meals are reimbursed using FEMA funding.

Building Economic Resilience and Recovery

As businesses and restaurants begin their phased restart, communities are considering strategies for retail and food sales while maintaining public health and safety. Tampa, FL built a “Lift up Local” Economic Recovery Plan for businesses to expand their outdoor capacity by temporarily allowing retail sales and dining on sidewalks, parking lots, designated closed roadways, and other private outdoor areas. The plan also permits temporary “parklets” for outdoor dining and sidewalk sales. Vermont’s Department of Housing and Community Development partnered with the Vermont Agency of Transportation to develop a similar guide to help downtowns expand outdoor seating.

A Toolkit for Local Response and Recovery

As communities navigate restarting, Strong Towns, a national organization rethinking our approach to community development, resilience, and leadership, has developed a “Local Leaders Toolkit” with strategies for response, recovery, and building strong towns into the future.

Vermont’s Local Support and Community Action Team—part of the state’s Economic Mitigation and Recovery Task Force—is working to provide Vermont communities with best practices for recovery. By connecting with communities across the globe they are building a toolkit of resources that can be replicated and shared across Vermont.