The experience of Vermont local food businesses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the resilience of food system actors at all levels and across geog­ra­phies. This study focuses on experience Vermont local businesses by combining two surveys conducted in first half 2021: one foodservice operations that procure locally farms sell directly to con­sumers. We analyzed descriptive statistics, open responses, Kruskal-Wallis rank sum tests assess which factors were related busi­nesses’ financial statuses before since pan­demic. Pre-pandemic status was with business type, whether went receive emergency funds, pandemic. only significant factor for prepan­demic status. close recommen­dations policy future research.