Vermont leads in providing summer meals to kids, new report shows

Vermont reached by far the highest proportion of children with summer meals in 2024 of any other U.S. state, according to a report released last week by the national Food Research & Action Center.

The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) released its “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation: The Reach of Summer Meals” report on April 1, highlighting the more than 350,000 additional children who accessed summer meals through the federal summer meals program nationwide in 2024 compared with the previous year’s total reach. 

FRAC has set a goal for states to provide lunch to 40 children through the federal summer meals programs for every 100 children participating in free and reduced-price school lunch during the preceding school year.  

Vermont by far exceeded that with 59.3 students receiving summer meals for every 100 receiving lunch during the school year — and was the only state in the country to exceed FRAC’s goal of 40. 

The other leading states in the report were Hawaii (38.9 of 100), New Mexico (36.0 of 100), Maryland (33.5 of 100), Montana (30.6 of 100), and Maine (30.0 of 100). The nationwide average for 2024 was 16.2 of 100. 

Vermont’s Universal School Meals Act has made more schools and communities across the state eligible for the federal afterschool and summer meals programs than ever before. 

While policy choices made in Vermont created the opportunity to significantly expand the number of children reached with summer meals, schools and community organizations still face challenges to getting started. 

Individualized technical support from organizations like Hunger Free Vermont and administrative support from the Vermont Agency of Education’s Child Nutrition Team for summer meal program sponsors and sites have been critical to the expansion of summer meal sites in Vermont.

“Reaching every child who needs summer meals has long been one of Hunger Free Vermont’s top priorities,” said Anore Horton, Hunger Free Vermont’s executive director. “We could never succeed without the determination of Vermont’s school nutrition professionals, and school and community leaders to make it happen. They overcame so many challenges to deliver nutritious meals to children all over our rural state, and are the true heroes of this story.”

Vermont has seen a dramatic increase in participation because of how easy it is to access these summer meals, and because more families with children and teens know where they can find these sites. Every summer, families can easily find their nearest summer meal sites by visiting Hunger Free Vermont’s Summer Meals page.

“The Agency of Education is incredibly proud of Vermont's recognition as the top performing Summer Meals state in the country,” said Toren Ballard, director of policy and communications at the Vermont Agency of Education. “Thanks to the hard work and innovation of our sponsors, we have meals sites in every county across Vermont.

You can find the full report here.