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Brief History and Mission
 Incorporated in 1993, The Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger (VTCECH) is a nonprofit, member-supported organization that develops programs and advocates policies to prevent hunger and promote good nutrition for Vermont's families.
Over the past 14 years, VTCECH has established a strong track record of identifying new sponsors of the federal child nutrition programs and providing the technical assistance that allows these programs to be implemented and sustained.
VTCECH is Vermont's principal advocate for sound, effective, and appropriate nutrition-assistance policy and offers a broad array of educational and informational services. In addition, VTCECH continues to identify gaps in community nutrition services and respond with creative education and enrichment programs. VTCECH is governed by a 10-member board of directors and a 6-member advisory board. VTCECH's 13 full-time and 4 part-time staff includes a state representative and 4 registered dietitians.
Programs and Major Accomplishments
- School Meal Programs: VTCECH members have been working to increase access to school breakfast and lunch programs since 1990 when only 17% of Vermont's schools served school meals to about 20,000 students. Today, 93% of Vermont's schools offer nutritious meals to more than 90,000 students.
- Summer Meal and Enrichment Programs: VTCECH has been working to expand the Summer Meal and Enrichment Program since 1992, when 802 children received summer
meals at 18 sites. In 2006, 4,500 children received meals and participated in enrichment and education activities at 153 sites in Vermont.
- Cooking for Life Program: Since our nutrition education and cooking program, Cooking for Life, began in 1999, we have offered: 166 adult series of classes to 1,753 low-income parents; 96 youth series to 1,000 at-risk youth; and 24 young adult series to 258 at-risk teens.
- Food Stamp Outreach and Education: VTCECH has played a critical role in reversing a decade-long trend of decreasing program utilization in Vermont and has overseen an increase from 38,558 participants in 2001 to 49,107 in 2006. Since 2003, the program has operated Vermontfoodhelp.com, the state's first food-stamp-only website. By the end of 2006, the site had received about 100,000 visits.
- Child and Adult Care Food Program: In 2004, VTCECH embarked on a new project to increase access to the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), a crucial federal nutrition program which can help ensure that the 38,000 infants and young children enrolled in Vermont childcare receive the nutrition they need to grow and develop. Our goal is to increase access to this underused program in Vermont where only one childcare center in six offers CACFP meals.
- Education and Advocacy: VTCECH has evolved into Vermont's principle anti-hunger authority and leading nutrition policy advocate. For example, VTCECH was the primary force behind Act 22, a change in state law enacted in the summer of 2003 that has greatly increased access to the School Meal Program. Within a year of passage, 19 schools had voted to establish a federal meal program, affecting 4,944 students. 10% of the statewide growth in the program since 1990 occurred between 2004 and 2005, largely due to Act 22.
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