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Creating sustainable and healthy meal programs
We partner with state and regional farm to school organizations to empower schools and early childhood programs to utilize Farm-to-School (FTS) as an opportunity to engage with their communities, expand local food purchasing, increase meal quality, and ensure program sustainability. Our team works closely with early childhood partners to expand Farm-to-Early-Childhood (FTEC) programming for all early childhood programs in Vermont. We help school nutrition programs build financially and administratively sustainable programs that can continuously adapt and meet the needs of their students, and we offer professional development opportunities for school nutrition program leaders and staff.
Farm to school and early childhood programs build capacity to address child nutrition and food security, create vibrant education programs for children, support local farmers and producers, and build strong local economies. In collaboration with Vermont Farm to School and Early Childhood Network partners, we work to build child nutrition programs’ capacity to feed children and engage them in their food and environment. Taking an integrated approach to farm to school that prioritizes developing robust farm to school curriculum, purchasing food from local producers, and growing child nutrition programs creates a virtuous cycle. When all these are prioritized, kids, teachers, nutrition programs, and local communities all benefit.
The Virtuous Cycle of Farm to School & Early Childhood
Fresh, nourishing, and attractive school meals bring more children to the table, which boosts revenue for stronger, sustainable nutrition programs, improving the ability of the program to purchase local foods. This leads to continued improvement to the meals served and keeps the virtuous cycle moving forward, improving student health and learning, supporting strong local farms, and eliminating stigma in the lunchroom.
Farm to Early Childhood Initiatives +
One of the most important pieces of early childhood education is children learning how to take care of their bodies, and food is a huge part of that. During early childhood children learn things like fine motor skills and self regulation, and important social development occurs during this time. This is why it is important to start teaching children about nutrition, food access, and where their food comes from in the early childhood years.
Currently, Farm to School programming has been strongly embedded in our school systems in Vermont, but only a small percentage of early childhood programs are able to access it. We believe in making more investments in the development of and accessibility to Farm to Early Childhood training and curriculum. Weaving Farm to Early Childhood education throughout the learning process for our youngest students will help to bridge the gap between early childhood and school age learning and create a stronger relationship between children and the food they eat.
How Hunger Free Vermont Supports Farm to School in Vermont +
Hunger Free Vermont supports our farm to school and early childhood partners at NOFA-VT, Shelburne Farms, and VT FEED by being an active member of the Farm to School and Early Childhood Network. We meet regularly with this partner group to continue expanding farm to school and early childhood programming around Vermont through grants, technical assistance, and connecting local producers with child nutrition programs. If you are interested in learning more about how farm to school and early childhood programming could fit into your community, connect with the following resources to take the next steps
Vermont FEED - A Farm to School project of NOFA-VT and Shelburne Farms
NOFA-VT (Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont)
Farm to School Grant Opportunities +
There are many opportunities to apply for relevant grants if you are looking to start up or expand your existing Farm to School and Early Childhood program. We work closely with our partners at the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to support their grant program connecting schools and early childhood programs with funding for projects related to Farm to School and Early Childhood. If you are interested in applying for this grant opportunity or would like to connect a school or early childhood program in your community to this opportunity, visit the Vermont Agency of Agriculture website to learn more about it: Farm to School and Early Childhood Grant - Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets
The USDA also runs a large annual Farm to School Grant Program that can fund large and innovative farm to school projects. USDA: Food and Nutrition Service Farm to School Grant
The Institute is a year-long professional learning opportunity for selected school, district, or early childhood teams from New England and New York. Northeast Farm to School Institute
Other state Farm to School related grants can be found on VT FEED’s website along with information about each grant opportunity. Find more Farm to School and Early Childhood grants here
Program Sustainability in Child Nutrition Programs
Building financially sustainable programs is a critical component of success in school meal programs, allowing you to grow, innovate, and improve your program. There are many ways that you can improve the financial health and sustainability of your program. This can also help you advocate to decision-makers for growth and expansion of your program.
Value Child Nutrition Programs +
School food service programs and staff provide essential services to children that are fundamental to a quality education. To ensure lasting program sustainability, child nutrition must be viewed and prioritized as central to education.
Elevate Voices of Child Nutrition Program Professionals: Directors and staff at child nutrition programs educate students every day. It is important that the voices of the directors, cooks, servers, and other meal program staff are a part of the school’s decision-making process: from scheduling enough time for kids to eat their meals at school to making legislative changes to how programs operate and distribute funds. We work to center the voices of child nutrition program staff in shaping meal programs and education for kids.
Improving Equity and Accessibility in the Child Nutrition Labor Force: Child Nutrition Programs often struggle with staffing. Pay in school nutrition lags behind other sectors in the food industry and rates of poverty and food insecurity are higher than average among staff nationwide. Raising levels of pay within child nutrition staff is essential to maintaining and growing the available labor force and raising the capacity of programs. Without investment in child nutrition program staff and equitable valuation of their labor, school meal programs will not be able to build long-term, sustainable growth and improvement.
Increase Participation to Maximize Revenue +
The more students and faculty who participate in your meal program, the more resources and funding you gain toward sustaining and growing your program. As more people participate in your program, you can lower the per-plate cost of serving meals. There are many ways you can increase participation:
- Follow through with a strong and persistent meal application campaign at the start of every school year, and throughout the year. Getting all eligible students qualified for free meals can make a universal school meal program like Provision 2 or Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) a possibility for your program. When all students can eat school meals for free, students don’t feel the barrier of stigma and are more likely to eat school meals. More students participating in your program means more resources for you to use to continue to improve the quality of your meal program and increase local purchasing.
- Having a quality, locally-sourced meal program entices more students to participate. The larger the variety you have of different entrees, local produce, and color within your menu, the more students will want to eat school meals.
- Create variety in your meal program with a cycle menu that runs no less than 3 weeks. Two-week cycle menus are common, but create a lot of repetition for students who may lose interest and choose not to eat school meals. Having a cycle menu of 3 weeks or more that includes seasonal additions means that you can keep things fresh and that students will remain interested in participating in your meal program while still building streamlined production in your kitchen.
- Offering Breakfast After the Bell (BAB) improves breakfast participation. Many students are not hungry or don’t have time to make and eat a balanced breakfast before arriving at school, and serving breakfast before the start of school means that many students will miss out because of when their bus or guardian drops them off. Serving breakfast after the bell is a great way to engage more students and to make sure that they are starting their learning day off right with a balanced breakfast. Low breakfast participation is often a major source of inefficiency; the more meals you serve, the more resources and funding you will have to continue to sustain your program.
Create and Run an Efficient Nutrition Program +
Maintaining organized and clear production and accounting records helps you understand your true cost of producing meals, where you can expand and improve, and what aspects of your meal program foster sustainability. Once you understand the true cost of meal production, you can improve labor efficiency, reduce overhead and administrative costs, and improve economies of scale.
- Maximizing labor efficiency is a straightforward way to foster program sustainability. Start by defining clear roles and responsibilities of each position within your program. When staff know what is required of them they will be able to manage their time easier and have more success in fulfilling their responsibilities. This step will also help you to better understand what essential roles and positions exist within your program, and can make you more successful at recruiting new staff. Turnover can be a very significant burden on your labor efficiency, as recruiting, hiring, and onboarding new staff takes a substantial time and cost commitment, so staff retention supports labor efficiency. Be sure to offer opportunities for growth, development, and leadership for your staff, to improve your overall capacity!
- Reducing overhead and administrative costs can improve the stability of your program. Streamlining administrative responsibilities and utilizing helpful time-saving technology like online meal applications can reduce your administrative costs. Make sure you are building a strong relationship with the staff (business manager, office assistant, etc.) who are tasked with the administration of your program. Often, the staff in these roles don’t have a clear and detailed understanding of all the components of running a successful meal program, and this can lead to missed opportunities and duplication of efforts that increase the cost of your program. Meet with your program administrator regularly to make sure that you are on the same page about what is expected of each other and how to anticipate seasonal recurring administrative requirements.
- One of the best ways to reduce overhead and administrative costs is by operating a universal meal program like Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) because things like meal applications, unpaid meal debt, and the time associated with collecting, processing, and verifying school meal applications are eliminated.
- Economies of Scale mean more efficient programs serving more meals. As you serve more meals, it becomes possible to improve your per-plate costs by producing more meals per labor hour and lowering per-unit purchasing costs with volume discounts from distributors and producers. Implement the strategies outlined above to increase participation and come up with other creative ways to improve economies of scale.
Providing Meals in Early Childhood Settings Report+
We strive to support child care programs around the state in providing nourishing meals and snacks to the children they serve. In order to be able to tailor our technical assistance and advocacy efforts to meet the needs of child care providers, we conducted a focus group study where we interviewed child care providers in Vermont about the cost of operating a meal program in child care, the barriers and successes to being able to provide meals and snacks in child care, and wishlist items that would allow them to be able to operate their ideal early childhood meal program.
This is the link to the final Providing Meals in Early Childhood Settings report and accompanying infographic.