School Meal Programs

The Campaign assists schools in establishing and expanding school breakfast and lunch programs, which provide a reliable source of nutrition for school age children. Only 17% of Vermont's schools served breakfast in 1993. Today, 97% of Vermont's schools serve nutritious meals to more than 94,000 students.

School Meals

Improve nutritional health of all children
Improve academic performance
Reduce behavior problems
Prevent obesity
Allow families on limited budgets to improve the quality of food at home

Currently, out of 319 Vermont public schools:

10 schools have lunch, but no breakfast program
2 schools have breakfast, but not lunch
11 schools have neither a lunch or a breakfast program

Look up your school to see if it offers school meals (.pdf)

Why School Breakfast?

School breakfast has repeatedly been shown to improve diet quality, student behavior, academic performance, and health.

Ways schools can increase student participation in school meals:

Provide breakfast at snack time in the classroom in elementary schools
Allow older students to access breakfast after the first class
Schedule lunch after recess
Use computerized debit accounts so free/reduced students can be anonymous
Provide free breakfast to all students, if possible
Reduce sale of foods that compete with the more nutritious complete school meal

Enroll more students in free/reduced price meals:

Remind parents that they can apply anytime during the school year
Provide as much anonymity as possible for students
Provide assistance to families to fill out the applications at open house functions and through follow-up calls.

School Meal Resources

Application for Free & Reduced Price School Meals (.pdf)

Has your income recently changed? (.pdf) A brochure for parents on eligibility & application guidelines for free and reduced price school meals

Income Guidelines & Reimbursement Rates for Federal Child Nutrition Programs (.pdf) Find out if your income qualifies your child(ren) for free or reduced price meals
School Meals Community Newspaper Article (.pdf) & School Meals Newsletter Bulletin (.pdf) An informative article and newsletter bulletin any concerned citizen can submit to their local paper or other community forum
School Meals "Envelope Stuffer" (.pdf) For use with school or business mailings to inform recipients about the benefits of enrolling in school meal programs
Best Practices for Vermont School Meal Programs (.pdf) Tips for school administrators on how to get the most out of their school's meal programs
Improving Access to School Meals (.pdf), Universal Free Breakfast (.pdf) and Making Breakfast Better (.pdf) Learn more about how to increase student participation in school meal programs

For more information, please contact Sarah Robinson, Senior Nutrition Program & Policy Specialist, at .