14Free Episode 12 - Laraway Youth & Family Services

In this episode of 14Free we visit Laraway Youth & Family Services in Johnson in Lamoille County. We met the Executive Director, Greg Stefanski, who tells us about the importance of their meal program for their students as not only a source of nutritious food but also as an act of caring. Lisa Rock, the Food Service Director, has led a successful school meal program out of a tiny kitchen for years—and has even run a summer meal program where she prepared meals for 7 sites in her area. Now, Lisa is in heaven at the school's new facilities in a renovated barn on acres of farm land in Johnson. Her new kitchen is conducive to cooking and food storage for the school meals program she runs at the school and for her summer meal program. Additionally, it is a space in which they will be able to continue to host Hunger Free Vermont's Learning Kitchen nutrition education and cooking classes. We are thrilled that the kids at Laraway have caring leaders that understand the important role nutritious food plays in a successful education and that they now have a beautiful new school in which to learn and grow.