Op-Ed: What happens when Vermont’s rural communities are left behind?

This commentary is by Paul Dragon of Underhill. He is the executive director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.

Nearly two years ago, I received a call from a Vermont woman in her 70s. It was the dead of winter. Her furnace was broken, and she was out of fuel. She said she wouldn’t normally ask for help, but she was worried about her dog and how cold it was.

In rural areas across Vermont, the federal government for decades has quietly but critically supported communities through community action agencies like the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. We repair furnaces, provide crisis fuel assistance and weatherize drafty homes, saving homeowners money to expend on other vital needs.

Thanks to the small Community Service Block Grant that we leverage with donations from community members we can fill gaps in emergency services like food, shelter and fuel.

The proposed cuts and elimination of the grant, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and weatherization services do not trim the fat off the budget, they sever the arteries of services and supports which are a lifeline to rural communities. Make no mistake, in these proposed federal cuts, rural communities and rural states like Vermont are taking the brunt. Community Service Block Grant funding and community action agencies serve all people in need and in particular older Vermonters, children, people with disabilities and veterans.

Food, fuel and shelter are not luxuries. They are necessities.

Rural Vermont, like much of rural America, is already skating on thin ice. Disappearing farms, higher-than-average poverty rates, food insecurity, little and aging infrastructure, limited public transit, and shrinking hospital networks already make it a daily grind just to get by. In this budget, the grind could become life-threatening as people are forced to choose between food, heat and health care.

Our money tends to follow our values. What we fund is who we prioritize. The federal budget is not prioritizing rural Vermont or rural America, plain and simple. Decades of effective, proven programs are at risk of disappearing — leaving rural communities and the people who live closest to the land with little or no support.

The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, like other community action agencies around the country, use Community Service Block Grant funds to fight poverty with local, targeted strategies — from emergency food aid, fuel assistance, emergency shelter, housing education and advocacy, Head Start, microbusiness development, weatherization and access to employment.

Our budgets should be a blueprint for dignity by providing the infrastructure and services that will grow our economy, build self-reliance, and strengthen our communities. This 2026 budget does none of that. Instead, it threatens to undermine and visit ruin upon our rural communities. Vermont deserves better.