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School Meals

schoolmealsmuffinHunger Free Vermont assists schools in establishing and expanding school breakfast and lunch programs, which provide a reliable source of nutrition for school age children. Only 17% of Vermont's schools served breakfast in 1993. Today, 97% of Vermont's schools serve nutritious meals to more than 94,000 students.

School Meals

  • Improve nutritional health of all children
  • Improve academic performance
  • Reduce behavior problems
  • Prevent obesity
  • Allow families on limited budgets to improve the quality of food at home

Currently, out of 319 Vermont public schools:

  • 10 schools have lunch, but no breakfast program
  • 1 school has breakfast, but not lunch
  • 11 schools have neither a lunch or a breakfast program

Look up your school to see if it offers school meals (.pdf)

Why School Breakfast?

School breakfast has repeatedly been shown to improve diet quality, student behavior, academic performance, and health.

Ways schools can increase student participation in school meals:

  • Provide breakfast at snack time in the classroom in elementary schools
  • Allow older students to access breakfast after the first class
  • Schedule lunch after recess
  • Use computerized debit accounts so free/reduced students can be anonymous
  • Provide free breakfast to all students, if possible 
  • Reduce sale of foods that compete with the more nutritious complete school meal

Enroll more students in free/reduced price meals:

  • Remind parents that they can apply anytime during the school year
  • Provide as much anonymity as possible for students
  • Provide assistance to families to fill out the applications at open house functions and through follow-up calls.

School Meal Resources

Application for Free & Reduced Price School Meals (.pdf)

Has your income recently changed? (.pdf) A brochure for parents on eligibility & application guidelines for free and reduced price school meals

Income Guidelines & Reimbursement Rates for Federal Child Nutrition Programs (.pdf) Find out if your income qualifies your child(ren) for free or reduced price meals

School Meals Community Newspaper Article (.pdf) & School Meals Newsletter Bulletin (.pdf) An informative article and newsletter bulletin any concerned citizen can submit to their local paper or other community forum

School Meals "Envelope Stuffer" (.pdf) For use with school or business mailings to inform recipients about the benefits of enrolling in school meal programs

Best Practices for Vermont School Meal Programs (.pdf) Tips for school administrators on how to get the most out of their school's meal programs

School Nutrition Association of Vermont Conference

At the October 2011 SNA-VT Conference, SNA-VT and Hunger Free Vermont announced new awards to recognize Outstanding Vermont School Food Service Personnel. Click here to learn about the winners of the award and stay tuned for information on the 2012 conference!

For more information, please contact Anore Horton, Child Nutrition Advocacy Manager at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .