Summer meals, feeding students nationwide, and nourishing neighbors: Here’s what’s been happening at Hunger Free Vermont lately
This is part of a new quarterly series, where we highlight three good things —big or small—from the Hunger Free Vermont team.
Wow, it’s been a busy few months. Our child nutrition team has been hard at work preparing for the summer meals program, we’ve been collaborating with our congressional leaders to advocate for food security, and one of our team members got elected to a national anti-hunger board. Here’s a sampling of some of the good things happening at the organization lately across the spectrum of the work we do.
Summer meals are here
Now that school is out, the summer fun begins, and we want to make sure kids throughout the state are able to access the nourishing food they need. That’s why we’ve revamped our summer meals webpage to make it easier for you all.
Here’s what we’ve done:
We created a new map tool so you can quickly find the summer meal site closest to you!
We made FAQs about summer meals easier to access
We developed a new resource page for meal sites and those looking to provide summer meals to kids
We made a page dedicated to outreach materials, making it easier for people to find and print their own posters, flyers and bookmarks to share within their communities. We even included some social media graphics to help share the word!
Vermont’s congressional delegation continues to support anti-hunger efforts
In mid-May, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) to ensure no child learns what hunger feels like at school through the Universal School Meals Program Act of 2026. The bill also received support from the other members of the Vermont delegation, Sen. Peter Welch and Rep. Becca Balint.
This bill would provide free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to all children, no matter what their family’s income is. Hunger Free Vermont was proud to support Sen. Sanders’ team in the crafting of pieces of this bill, based on the learnings and success of this program in Vermont.
Vermont was the first state in the nation to introduce a Universal Schools Meals bill, and Act 64 made it law in 2023, after providing Universal School Meals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than 14 million free meals are provided to Vermont children at school every year thanks to the program.
The Vermont congressional delegation also came out in support of the Modern WIC Act.
HFVT staffer gets elected to Nourishing Neighbors Consortium
Christi Kroll, Hunger Free Vermont’s grants and development manager, was recently elected vice chair of the Nourishing Neighbors Consortium.
The Albertsons Companies Foundation has established this collective of nonprofit partners from across the country working to advance long-term, systemic solutions to hunger.
Kroll was able to gather with fellow consortium partners in Washington, D.C., at the end of April to share learning, align priorities, and strengthen the relationships that make this work possible.
“Ending hunger in America takes all of us—no one can do it alone,” Kroll said. “Working with nonprofits nationwide brings the best of each of us to tackle the growing hunger crisis.”
The Nourishing Neighbors Consortium’s purpose is ambitious and critical: to end hunger in America by leveraging our resources and knowledge to cultivate sustainable and creative solutions, change minds, and drive collective action.