The vast majority of Vermont school districts plan to keep offering food to students over the summer months, but they’ll likely deliver fewer meals. A key reason why meal programs successfully kept so many fed during the shutdown — delivery by school bus — will end for many schools.
Data collected by the Agency of Education suggests that bus delivery dramatically improved access to meals after in-person schooling ceased and non-essential businesses shut due to Covid-19 in March. Overall, the number of daily meals served to the state’s schoolchildren dropped by 4% in April compared to the same month in 2019, according to data provided by the agency.
VTDigger analyzed the 27 districts that reported their method of distribution. The nine districts that reported delivery as their only distribution method had an increase of 20% in meals served, while the 10 districts that only had grab-and-go meals saw a 41% decline.
“The biggest problem is transportation and that is mostly always the biggest problem for summer meals in rural states like Vermont. So the problem is nothing new. What is new, of course, is that we’re in the middle of a pandemic,” said Anore Horton, the executive director of Hunger Free Vermont.
The House has passed a package that would send an additional $12 million to reimburse schools for transportation and other summer meal-related expenses. The Senate is also expected to greenlight the bill, which is funded with federal relief dollars.
But for many districts, the money could come too late.
The federal government is requiring schools to have plans in place for their summer meal programs by June 30. Legal deadlines aside, it takes time to set up the logistics of a meal program, and most schools are already on summer break.
“Everyone’s really concerned that we’re going to have this funding, we’re going to have this opportunity to have the greatest reach of summer meals for children that we’ve ever seen in our state, and we’re not going to be able to really fulfill on the promise of that, because the window is going to close,” Horton said.
In the Mt. Abraham Union and Addison Northwest school districts, Kathy Alexander, who oversees their shared food service program, said the schools were delivering about 3,600 meals a day via school bus during the school year. But with their bus and staffing contracts coming to a close, with no guarantee of additional funding, the districts had to switch gears.
Over the summer, they’ll offer food at child care centers and at summer enrichment programs. The schools will also allow families to pick up several days worth of meals at twice-weekly pickup sites. Based on responses to a survey the district sent out, a handful of families will get home delivery, although Alexander said the districts are still looking for volunteers to staff that effort.
Even if additional funds come through, Alexander is emphatic it’s too late at this point to make big changes. A new bus contract alone would take days to negotiate.
It was a “mini miracle” that the food service program was able to pivot so quickly to delivering meals when schools first shuttered, she said, and one that relied on the basic infrastructure already being in place.
“I don’t even know how we did it, to be honest with you. But, you know, the fact that the buses were available and we had staff available — right there — wanting to work, was key,” she said.
Given the responses the districts received in their survey, Alexander thinks the schools will be able to meet the demand that’s out there, even though they’ll be preparing substantially fewer meals.
She acknowledges that there’s a disconnect. Food insecurity has dramatically spiked in Vermont during the pandemic, and the meals on the bus program was wildly successful. It’s possible, she said, that participation for some was more about avoiding the grocery store in an effort to better quarantine, or keeping kids feeling connected to school.
She is advertising the district’s summer meal program as widely as possible.
“So many people availed themselves so this and our numbers are definitely cut in half,” she said.
In the Montpelier-Roxbury school district, superintendent Libby Bonesteel said the district is cutting back from offering meals at four pickup locations to just one.
“What we were doing wasn’t necessarily sustainable, primarily because our administrators were the ones who were doing the food service,” she said.
Montpelier hasn’t historically run a summer food program, so a single pickup site is still more than what the district offered last year over the summer months. Bonesteel said it’s possible one grab-and-go site might not be enough, although the schools haven’t yet heard that from families.
“But if we do, then we’ll — just as we’ve been doing this whole time – revamp and think of something different, what we can within our capacity,” she said.
Erin Petenko contributed reporting.
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