The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger
180 Flynn Avenue  Burlington, VT 05401  Phone: 802-865-0255  Fax: 802-865-0266  www.vtnohunger.org
The Community Hunger Project : Because every child deserves a chair at the table.
Hunger Council of Chittenden County
Minutes to meeting: October 15th, 2009
Temple Sinai, South Burlington, VT
Thanks to Rabbi Glazier for providing the meeting space.
Save the Date: The next meeting is February 18, 2010 - 1:30 to 4:00 PM
Action steps since the meeting:
 A press release about the highlights of the meeting was sent to the daily newspapers, 7 Days, TV
and radio and a short article was sent to the weekly and monthly newspapers.
 As a result, Channel 17 has offered a ½ hour live call in program that will be hosted by Fran
Stoddard about the work of the Hunger Council
 A thank you letter is being drafted to Marsha Faryniarz, Kim Keiser, and Elizabeth Meyer for
their presentations
 VTCECH and Child Care Resource will follow up with the YMCA to better understand barriers
to participation in a meals program.
Minutes:
Present: Jim Morse, Fran Stoddard, Margie Stern, Jean Hamilton, Doug Davis, Erik Filkorn, Jane Helmstetter,
Linda Berlin, Tina S. de la Torre, Sister Irene Duchesneau, Eileen Elliott, Phil Fiermonte, Rabbi James Glazier,
Penrose Jackson, Elizabeth Meyer, Rep. Ann Pugh,
Guests: Kim Keiser, former Deputy Commissioner for the Child Development Division of the Department for
Children and Families; Marsha Faryniarz, Vice President for Child and Youth Programs at
YMCA; Nancy DeCoster, Child Care Resource; Julie Cole, Fletcher Allen Community Health
VTCECH staff: Marissa Parisi, Mitzi Johnson, Emily Glover, Liz Guenard, Ann Janda, Dorigen Keeney
Facilitators: Fran Stoddard and Jim Morse
Jim Morse opened the discussion by asking that participants share “What has inspired you in the last month?”
Some of the highlights:
 Jim Morse: President Obama’s call to end childhood hunger in the United States by 2015
 Margie Stern: Foodbank providing more fresh foods and improving quality of what is provided to food
pantries and soup kitchens
 Jean Hamilton: The expansion of use in farmers markets of 3SquaresVT (formerly food stamps)
benefits: this summer $20,000 was spent on 3SquaresVT EBT benefit cards
 Doug Davis: The expressed concern by the Superintendent of Burlington Schools about access to food
for students if the schools close because of a worsening flu pandemic.
 Eileen Elliott: The recent work of advocates and state agencies to improve senior access to 3SquaresVT
The Community Hunger Project — A partnership with Northfield Savings Bank Foundation
The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger
180 Flynn Avenue  Burlington, VT 05401  Phone: 802-865-0255  Fax: 802-865-0266  www.vtnohunger.org
The Community Hunger Project : Because every child deserves a chair at the table.
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Jane Helmstetter: Recent changes in the WIC program that increase fruits, vegetables, whole grains and
the use of alternative proteins like tofu
Sister Irene: Especially concerned about reaching the elderly, who are so isolated and hard to reach
Elizabeth Meyer: Inspired by individuals’ commitments to helping others: relayed that a child care
provider will be the sole caretaker of a child because the single parent was being deployed to
Afghanistan
Penrose Jackson: Inspired and frustrated by recent recovery money coming into the state to fund
programs that improve physical activity and nutrition that are focused on obesity rather than on nutrition
Phil Fiermonte: Inspired by Senator Sanders’ recent proposal for $250 payment to seniors in lieu of
COLA increase this year in Social Security. Also, amendment to Ag appropriations bill to aid dairy
farmers, both indirect and direct support to farmers
James Glazier: His congregation collected over a ton of food for local food pantries and the social action
committee is committed to deliver meals-on-wheels throughout the year rather than just once a year on
Christmas
Panel on feeding young children:
Kim Keiser provided a history of Building Bright Futures, a coordinated and holistic approach to supporting
young children and their families in communities. BBF began in late 1980’s when regional councils were
formed informally and then more formally in the early 1990’s. The goal was to bring health, early education,
mental health, hunger, nutrition services, and child care providers together into a common forum to know what
one another were doing and to begin to develop together some strategies on targeted goals. The three stated
outcomes were: 1. Pregnant women and children thrive; 2. Children live in stable and secure families; 3.
Children are ready for school. The work was based on a growing scientific literature on what creates the best
outcomes for children.
Recently regional capacity has been severely diminished because positions have been cut. She is concerned that
equity of access to services, including nutrition, has not been a priority and more rural counties are losing out.
She encourages the Council to closely align their work with BBF and to help ensure that the vision not be
compromised.
Elizabeth Meyer: She provided an update on Child Care Resource’s project to increase the number of child
care centers providing meals to all children through the child care food program in Chittenden County. The first
center, Muddy Hands, was enrolled in November 2008 and another 5 centers were added over the year. The
programs are primarily serving breakfast and pm snack because it is more difficult to provide lunch, which
takes more time, facilities, and money. Three additional programs are slated to come on, serving an average of
173 children. They are finding that some of the barriers are insufficient facilities, funds to cover staffing/labor
costs, paperwork tracking, time limitations, and parents preferring to bring their own meals and snack. They are
exploring a bulk buying program through the Vermont Foodbank to reduce food costs for programs.
Marsha Faryniarz: The YMCA runs 8 child care centers and 22 afterschool programs. Many do not have
kitchen facilities, although meals could be brought in from other programs. The YMCA asks that parents send
meals in with the children and provide snack to the whole class on a rotating basis. The YMCA does not see the
The Community Hunger Project — A partnership with Northfield Savings Bank Foundation
The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger
180 Flynn Avenue  Burlington, VT 05401  Phone: 802-865-0255  Fax: 802-865-0266  www.vtnohunger.org
The Community Hunger Project : Because every child deserves a chair at the table.
need for the meal program because kids are not bringing in poor quality meals and snacks. If a child does come
in with poor quality food the staff provides information to the parents on better food choices. The biggest
obstacle to providing meals and snacks is extra time that it would take to prepare the food and do the
paperwork.
Mitzi Johnson: Vermont ranks 49th in the country in providing meals in child care centers. Several years ago,
VTCECH surveyed all the child care centers in Vermont to identify why providers/centers were not
participating. The barriers identified were lack of information on the program, too much paperwork, and lack of
facilities. VTCECH has been working on reducing these barriers including replicating the sponsorship model
(like Child Care Resource) in other parts of the state whereby an agency does most of the paperwork for the
centers. In addition, VTCECH in conjunction with Department of Education has reduced the length of the
application dramatically, from 45 pages to 9 pages. Mitzi has also developed electronic spreadsheets for centers
to use that reduce the time needed by 2/3rds. VT Works for Women is investigating the possibility of a catered
meals program for centers that do not have kitchen facilities or staff time and combining it with a jobs training
program.
In a year, we have enrolled enough centers on the program such that there is another $310,000 annually coming
in to the state ($155,000 of that in Chittenden County) to feed children just from centers newly enrolled. Centers
that begin to participate in the meals program have found that preparing 1 meal for 30 children is actually faster
than heating up 30 different lunches. Centers also report that the behavior of children is improved and in one
case, the child’s behavior was so dramatically improved that he no longer needed a 1-on-1 aide when he was
getting adequate meals at the center.
Highlights of the discussion:
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Council members wondered if the YMCA has done any kinds of surveys of the families to learn a little
bit about their experience with their ability to send lunch or what their wishes would be concerning
meals.
15-20% of the children who attend the YMCA centers receive a state subsidy.
The child care food program has a strong component of nutrition education for parents and providers
School-based programs can provide afterschool snack through the school lunch program with almost no
paperwork.
Vermont has low participation, in part, because we have smaller centers and relatively low
reimbursement for the meals because poverty is spread out geographically (the reimbursement per meal
is based on the % of low-income children in the center).
Burlington Schools are working to provide culturally familiar foods for the many new immigrants to
Burlington (52 languages are spoken at Burlington High School). The new immigrant students want
“American” food, while the “American” students want to try the new immigrant foods.
CACFP provides education to the family through the children bringing home the desire for family style
meals and a variety of new foods, especially fruits and vegetables.
Providing meals does gain a center points in the Vermont system for measuring quality, the “Stars”
program
The Community Hunger Project — A partnership with Northfield Savings Bank Foundation
The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger
180 Flynn Avenue  Burlington, VT 05401  Phone: 802-865-0255  Fax: 802-865-0266  www.vtnohunger.org
The Community Hunger Project : Because every child deserves a chair at the table.
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The Commodity program needs to be reformed such that local products could be purchased. VT
legislature could help reform the commodity program to allow the purchase of local products.
Next Meeting: February 18th, 2010, 1:30-4:00 pm. At Temple Sinai
Respectfully submitted by Jonathan Harris and Dorigen Keeney
The Community Hunger Project — A partnership with Northfield Savings Bank Foundation