Resources/Child Nutrition Hub/Addressing child hunger at home
Everyone deserves enough food at home. 3SquaresVT and WIC help families stretch their food budgets. Schools and childcare providers are trusted community leaders who can share positive messaging about these programs and support families’ access to them. We provide outreach materials, language, and training about these programs to make it easier to connect families to support in your community.
Addressing childhood hunger at home.
3SquaresVT
3SquaresVT is a program that helps you buy food. Over 70,000 Vermonters get benefits every month but many more qualify. The program provides people with money on an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card, which works like a debit card. EBT cards can be used to purchase food at grocery and convenience stores, co-ops, and many farmers markets.
WIC (Women, Infants, & Children)
WIC offers healthy foods, nutrition education and counseling, breastfeeding support, and community referrals to other important services. If you’re pregnant, a caregiver or a parent with a new baby or a child under five, WIC is for you!
Take action to support family food security
Here’s how you can support families in your community:
Use Consistent Positive Messaging +
- Vermont Food Help’s 3SquaresVT Campaign Toolkit includes a breadth of outreach materials and strategies to help you spread the word about 3SquaresVT in a way that accurately and positively communicates the program. Choose from a television ad, social media graphics, outreach flyers, newsletter blurbs, and talking points.
- WIC Resources:
Connect with community partners to offer resources & application assistance at school events.+
Advocate within your school or childcare program to increase partnerships and outreach. Key spaces include PTO meetings, parent-teacher conferences, resource fairs, wellness committees, pickup/drop off sites, and open houses.
- A critical way to spread awareness and outreach around 3SquaresVT in your school community is to have accessible flyers and outreach materials around the school. See the Resources section below for helpful materials.
- Regional community action agencies, as well as Vermont Foodbank, can provide individual application assistance to families.
Form a Food Security Team at your school or childcare program. +
Many schools and childcare programs across the state are beginning to form health-based coalitions amongst school community members. Having a dedicated food access team can help connect other food access champions within your school and community to come together and strategize ways to tackle food access in your community.
- Identify potential food access partners in your region and form partnerships to strengthen your food security team; food access champions can come from all sectors of the community from school nutrition professionals to community youth coalitions.
- Meet to form an achievable action plan that includes goals that you wish to accomplish within the first year of your partnership. Goals can include:
- A strategic outreach campaign around available food access programs
- Collaboration with local food access organizations to reach more populations
- Community dinners through the school food service program
- Schedule regular meetings where you all can collaborate and check in on the progress of your action plan
Join your regional Hunger Council +
Hunger Free Vermont has created 10 Hunger Councils across the state, by region. The Hunger Council model is a comprehensive approach to addressing hunger: by educating community members about the local causes and effects of hunger. The Hunger Council meetings are a great way to be kept informed about food access efforts in your community and for you to spread awareness or ask questions about strengthening these conversations in your school. Find and connect with your local Hunger Council here.