South Burlington, Vermont - June 9, 2011
According to state statistics, about a third of Vermont's children depend on free and reduced-price meals during the school year. But when the school year ends, for many of those children, so do the meals because there isn't enough food at home. There are summer camp programs in Vermont that provide meals as part of the summer food service which is a Federal program. But more is needed.
"There are programs all over the state, some really wonderful programs, but they are only reaching about one in five low-income children and many times it is only for a couple of weeks, although some programs are able to go 8 to 10 weeks which is wonderful," said Dorigen Keeney of Hunger Free Vermont.
The Hunger Council of Chittenden County is trying to brainstorm ways to get more food to more kids in need. And that includes thinking outside the box. For instance some food shelves are now packaging and freezing fresh food, so it will last longer.
"Getting from the grocery store, Mazza's or the intervale and packaging the meats and packaging the vegetables so they would be relatively fresh," said Sister Irene Duchnesneau, a Hunger Council volunteer.
The people at the meeting Thursday represent a lot of different organizations in the community because hunger and food insecurity overlap in a lot of different ways. The group represents churches, staff members of the congressional delegation, nonprofits, school officials and representatives from human services agencies, including the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.
"One really important reason why people can't afford to feed their families is in the state of Vermont is there is no worse place in this country for a low-income person to live when it comes to affordability of energy and housing," said Tim Searles of the CVOEO.
One of the goals of this group for this summer is to try to make more families in need aware of the programs that will soon be up and running.
The council members also discussed how to expand access to farmers markets for low-income Vermonters who depend on 3 squares Vermont, formerly food stamps.
Judy Simpson - WCAX News
