Hi Maisie,
Thanks so much for sharing your model for Hunger Councils. I really appreciated your philosophy of providing resources and support while enabling each community to find its own direction. I was wondering if you could provide example(s) of how one of the existing councils identified an issue in the community and took steps to address it. What was the issue? Who did they partner with? What was the outcome?
Thanks!
Alexis
Great question, Alexis! Early on in the Washington County Hunger Councils' existence, we provided extensive education about school meal programs in Vermont, as part of their comprehensive hunger curriculum. The Council members decided to dig deeper into their communities' programs, to identify the gaps and the success stories. They created a survey for school meal service providers, and every Council member visited at least one school meal program to administer the survey. It was an eye-opening experience for the Council members to see these programs in action, as few of them knew the challenges schools face on a daily basis trying to feed their students healthful meals.
From there, the results were compiled into a Best Practices document that was shared with all the schools in the County, and action plans were devised (in coordination with Campaign staff) to help struggling schools improve quality and participation. They took a hands-on approach to helping their schools, which dramatically improved morale and motivation at the school level. As a result, participation in school breakfast in Washington County increased 11% between 2006-2008, equaling over 23,000 additional meals per school year.
This particular initiative was so successful in Washington County that the Chittenden County Hunger Council replicated it in their region as well. Thanks to that effort, 2 new meal programs began, and now every public school in both counties provide breakfast and lunch to their students!
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Hi Maisie,
Thanks so much for sharing your model for Hunger Councils. I really appreciated your philosophy of providing resources and support while enabling each community to find its own direction. I was wondering if you could provide example(s) of how one of the existing councils identified an issue in the community and took steps to address it. What was the issue? Who did they partner with? What was the outcome?
Thanks!
Alexis
Great question, Alexis! Early on in the Washington County Hunger Councils' existence, we provided extensive education about school meal programs in Vermont, as part of their comprehensive hunger curriculum. The Council members decided to dig deeper into their communities' programs, to identify the gaps and the success stories. They created a survey for school meal service providers, and every Council member visited at least one school meal program to administer the survey. It was an eye-opening experience for the Council members to see these programs in action, as few of them knew the challenges schools face on a daily basis trying to feed their students healthful meals.
From there, the results were compiled into a Best Practices document that was shared with all the schools in the County, and action plans were devised (in coordination with Campaign staff) to help struggling schools improve quality and participation. They took a hands-on approach to helping their schools, which dramatically improved morale and motivation at the school level. As a result, participation in school breakfast in Washington County increased 11% between 2006-2008, equaling over 23,000 additional meals per school year.
This particular initiative was so successful in Washington County that the Chittenden County Hunger Council replicated it in their region as well. Thanks to that effort, 2 new meal programs began, and now every public school in both counties provide breakfast and lunch to their students!
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