Senator Sanders Visits At-Risk, Afterschool Meal Program

Senator Sanders meets with Afterschool Program Coordinators, Food Service Directors,

 and Hunger Free Vermont staff at Flynn Elementary School, Burlington, VT

Senator Sanders; Doug Davis, Director of Burlington School Food Service;

Marissa Parisi & Anore Horton, Hunger Free Vermont

Senator Sanders greets children while they get their meals

Senator Sanders with children in the afterschool program

at Flynn Elementary School in Burlington,VT

Yesterday, Senator Bernie Sanders made a special visit to John J. Flynn Elementary School in Burlington to experience the At-Risk Afterschool Meal program. 

Meals and snacks after school give a nutritional boost to children, including teenagers through age 18, in eligible afterschool programs in lower income areas in Vermont.  In 2009, Senator Sanders was instrumental in adding Vermont as a state to pilot this program which eventually became available to all states in the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

When school is out and parents are still at work, children need a safe place to be with their friends, with structured activities, and supportive adults.  Afterschool programs that serve meals and snacks draw children and teenagers in to constructive activities that are safe, fun, and filled with opportunities for learning.  We are thrilled to have this program in Vermont which covers an important nutrition gap for children who are at-risk for hunger.  This program supports children who might not eat dinner until late in the evening when their parents return from work and in some extreme cases it might be the last meal of the day for the 1 in 5 children living in a food insecure households in Vermont.

Hunger Free Vermont has worked hard to recruit schools and afterschool programs to particiate in this program.  The At-Risk Afterschool Meal Program provides meals for children in afterschool programs where over 50% of children in the school district are enrolled in the free and reduced price meals program.  All of the evening meal programs in Vermont include enrichment activities and a chance for children to engage with their peers.  This program is also the first program of its kind to serve teenagers afterschool.  After school hours are the prime risk-taking time for older children and this program helps attract teens to enrichment programs in a supervised environment.

Since the meal program launched at John J. Flynn Elementary School parents, teachers, and children have embraced the opportunity to have children eating a healthy meal after school.  They’ve seen the children participating in this program excited and appreciative for the meals.  This program lessens children’s anxiety by ensuring they have three square meals a day.  We were pleased to have Senator Sanders visit this program and are grateful for his leadership in bringing this program to Vermont.  If your school or afterschool program would like to participate in this program please contact Hunger Free Vermont!