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Best Practices
Descriptions of successful programs around the state include:
Burlington
The Burlington Parks and Recreation Department’s (BPRD) Summer Recreation and Nutrition Program works to reach more hungry children and strengthen meal programs at three sites: Roosevelt Park, Bobbin Mill, and Franklin Square Housing Development, serving a combined total of 179 children who would otherwise not have access to the existing for-fee summer youth programming. BPRD is one of several site coordinators in Burlington that receive meals through Burlington School District. Besides the typical physical activities and board games that make up the recreation activities of the program, food activities, field trips and gardening are some of the staples of the Summer Recreation and Nutrition Programs. The Roosevelt Park garden, cared for by children attending the program and volunteer community members, was awarded a neighborhood garden “Burlington Bloom Award” from Gardener’s Supply. These programs have such an impact on the surrounding community that Franklin Square’s site manager credited the programs for the significant decrease in “kid related” complaint calls to Burlington Police Department during the summer months when an increase in such calls is usually apparent.
Barre City
In the summer of 2006, the Barre City School District doubled its capacity to offer free meals and enrichment activities to local children during the summer months. Realizing that only 12% of the eligible children in town were accessing summer food, churches in Barre collaborated to create two new summer food sites under the existing sponsor. At the Presbyterian Church, young children gathered each day for lunch and to take part in games, dance sessions, music and drumming performances, visits from the chief of police and the fire department, and food-related activities like pizza making—all free of charge and open to the public. At the Hedding Methodist Church, basketball camp and other sports activities were offered before and after lunch to local teens in a comfortable environment. The Aldrich Library and Highgate Housing Complex continued to host summer meals along with arts and crafts, sports, gardening, dance, music, and toddler enrichment activities. With the additional summer food sites, the Barre City School District served almost one hundred additional low-income children nutritious meals throughout the summer of 2006, raising the participation rate to 15%. With increased outreach underway, the Barre City School District hopes to feed even more Vermont children in the summer of 2007.
Middlebury
Created a few years ago by a group of concerned Middlebury-area community members, the Summer Lunch and Recreation Program now provides meals and activities to approximately 60 children each day. While Middlebury is often thought of as an affluent neighborhood with little or no poverty, 142 elementary students are receiving free or reduced- price meals during the 2006-2007 school year. It was these children that prompted the grassroots creation of the successful summer program, which now offers activities such as organic gardening, kayaking, swimming, hiking, playing games with seniors at the rehabilitation center, and visiting the rescue squad to learn first aid. Plans are underway to enlarge the program to include younger children from surrounding communities. Breakfast and lunch is provided through the Summer Food Service Program of Addison Community Action/CVOEO, which also serves meals to the local middle and high schools, Vergennes Boys and Girls Club, and various other small programs through nonprofit organizations.
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