Vermont Free Food Fracas Exposes Progressive Folly

Crime is up, business is down.

University of Vermont Professor Sam Bliss, one of the founders of ‘Food Not Cops’ speaks at the relocation protest on May 19, 2025 (Beautiful Scenic Burlington/YouTube)

A controversial Burlington, Vermont, food distribution center run by self-avowed Marxist anarchists is set to be relocated due to business complaints of increasing crime and declining commerce. The City Council voted to relocate the free meal facility, sparking outrage and pushback from the same progressive voices that have been criticized for their role in the destruction of Burlington. Tuesday, Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak averted further controversy with a resolution to contribute $10,000 toward a site relocation.

Progressive Petri Dish Gone Foul

As Vermont’s progressive mecca and largest city, Burlington has long declared itself a sanctuary city for illegals. It permits voting for thousands of non-citizens, drastically chopped its police in the post-Floyd defund the police fiasco, embraces soft prosecutors and decriminalization, calls Vermont police racist using skewed statistics, permits public nudity and “safe” injection sites, and is currently trying to ban private citizens from bearing arms in city limits.

The consequences of this progressive extravaganza of lawlessness are increasingly evident. Burlington crime (including gang violence), homelessness, drug use, and graffiti have all skyrocketed. Some business owners claim that customer traffic has dropped by 40 percent, prompting closures.

Over 100 city businesses submitted a May 9 letter to the Burlington City Council in a desperate petition for relief. The letter cited problems including needles strewn widely, college students avoiding the city, elementary and high school student safety, a growing public perception that the city is unsafe, business closures, rampant graffiti, and lack of employee safety (“particularly young women and students”). The letter begged the city to help reverse the scourge its progressive policies have sown:

We have reached a critical point where we must voice a serious alarm: our downtown is facing a crisis …. Businesses are closing their doors, valued long-term employees are leaving, and residents are increasingly choosing to avoid the downtown area. Those of us who remain feel neglected and increasingly unsafe.

Downtown businesses continue to shoulder the burden of managing overdoses, confronting shoplifting, and responding to mental health crises without adequate support. This is not our role — we need trained professionals and a responsive system in place. The administration must address the lack of meaningful consequences for repeat offenders, which has led to emboldened behavior and a troubling escalation in both frequency and severity.

Crime Spigot Relocation

As part of the requested solution, businesses requested that a free lunch program called “Food Not Cops” be relocated:

The free lunch program operating out of our main parking garage has had a negative impact on the area. Some attendees have repeatedly stolen from businesses or caused harm. We respectfully ask that this program be relocated to a more appropriate and secure setting — not eliminated.

Burlington’s City Council subsequently voted to compel Food Not Cops to relocate by July 14th, supported with city funds. Progressives launched a public outcry on behalf of the non-taxpaying, cop-hating, Food Not Cops:

On Monday, nearly 100 supporters of Food Not Cops gathered in City Hall Park to protest the proposal and serve a free meal. Organizers led chants and waved signs, prompting honks from passing cars and cheers from the crowd.

“Who keeps us safe? Who keeps us fed?” they yelled. “Food Not Cops! Food Not Cops!”

Ignorance Is Bliss?

The putative leader of the resistance to relocate the free food facility is a University of Vermont professor named Sam Bliss, who claimed, “the service actually makes Burlington safer because fed people are better behaved than those who are hungry.” Bliss, a transplant from Seattle, went further, stating: “I’ve done bad things, we all have. And [businesses] are also concerned about f—–g shoplifting, and first of all, what I’m going to say there is, everybody f—–g shoplifts!” (RELATED: Tesla Terror Attacks Show Americans Aren’t Buying the Left’s Fake ‘Grassroots’ Game Anymore)

In an editorial attacking Burlington businesses striving to survive, Bliss wrote:

Last September, the City of Burlington started paying $1,500 every week to station a rent-a-sheriff in the garage on weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., a shift that is centered on our hour-long pop-up buffet. Friends now tell me they avoid Food Not Cops, and the assistance on offer, because of the sheriff’s presence. You wouldn’t want to hang out next to a sheriff, either, if you were homeless.

So, why are local business owners blaming us for their downtown woes?

In response to the meager protest, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak called for the City Council to reconsider the proposed relocation, and “criticized the resolution’s ‘polarizing’ effect.” This prompted pushback by Burlington’s City Council President, Democrat Ben Traverse, who accused the Mayor of “unnecessarily divisive” rhetoric. Council members reemphasized that over 150 businesses, residents, and visitors have demanded action. (RELATED: The Democrats Have Normalized Political Violence)

Similar progressive experiments across America have destroyed businesses and hollowed out once safe, vibrant cities. It is unclear where Food Not Cops will move to, but progressive policies that feed homelessness, violence, and drug addiction appear destined to remain in Vermont’s once-lovely Burlington.

(Originally published at American Spectator.)