Happy Holidays From Brett Dennen and The Point

Last night was the Brett Dennen benefit concert at the Barre Opera House. What an amazing night! We have to shower thanks on our friends Caroline and Zeb from The Point who approached us with the idea and produced the whole show. Brett Dennen and his band donated their talent to raise $14,000 for the Campaign. Brett traveled from California for the show and his guitar was destroyed in baggage claim on the plane. He played the whole show on a borrowed guitar. Brett is a wonderful artist and performer. He wore our End Hunger 2015 button throughout the night.

This was an incredible way to end 2009. Throughout the year we have been blessed by community support in every corner of the state. Thank you to all of our board, staff, and friends.

My personal New Year's resolution is to be a more disciplined blogger! Please help me stick to that by checking back often in 2010. I wish you all peace and joy in the New Year.

Hunger on the Rise

John Sayles, CEO of the Vermont Foodbank and I were on Vermont Edition today discussing the new hunger report released by the USDA last week. Vermont is now ranked as the 6th hungriest state in the nation. The Campaign's work in now more vital than ever. Hear today's discussion on how we will end hunger in our state.

Transformational Conversation

This week's World Cafe discussions were dynamic and engaging. Thank you to all of the community members, advocates, and board members who participated. We collected a significant amount of qualitative data that will inform our five-year strategic plan. Below are the graphic notes recorded by our guest artist, Kelvy Bird. We hope to have our strategic plan finalized by April 2010. I look forward to sharing our continued progress throughout the process. Please keep checking our website and blog for the latest news. Click on the images for a larger view.

The Process

Graphic Notes from the Rutland World Cafe
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Graphic Notes from the Waterbury World Cafe
Thursday, October 29th, 2009

World Cafes

The Campaign is in the midst of a strategic planning process to focus our work over the next five years, and we need your help! We will be hosting two World Cafe discussions in Waterbury and Rutland to collect your insights on ending hunger in our commuities. The World Cafe discussion model is a dynamic way to get the community talking. We will be hosting a graphic artist who will record our meetings with both words and pictures. This is an opportunity to participate in something unique and contribute to shaping our organization's future. Plus we'll have snacks!

Here are the details:

Wednesday, October 28th 1:30-4pm
at the Franklin Conference Center in Rutland 92 Strongs Avenue, Rutland, VT 05701

Thursday, October 29th 1:30-4pm
at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Waterbury33 Coffee Lane, Waterbury VT 05676

Please bring along a friend or two to add more voices to the conversation!

You can RSVP for either event by clicking here.

Hope to see you there! I've included a graphic recording sample below. I can't wait to see what the artist creates for our discussions!

Everything is Topnotch!

My apologies for not blogging sooner. There has been a flutter of activity at the Campaign this summer. On August 22nd we hosted a very successful event at the Topnotch Resort in Stowe. Thanks to Chef Mark Timms, over 250 people got to taste delectable dishes from chefs across Vermont and the U.S at the Rising Star Chef Food & Wine Show. All of the event proceeds were donated to the Campaign and we are tremendously grateful to Chef Mark and the staff at Topnotch for hosting this event on our behalf. It was beautiful weather and people all day long!

Next up we'll be hosting the ONE Woman Photography Project at our office as part of the South End Art Hop. Sarah Judd of Burlington College organized the project, and describes it as “a community photography project that documents the lives of women living, working, and learning in this unique and culturally diverse section of the city. We gave disposable cameras to 200 women of diverse economic and social backgrounds and asked them to take pictures of their daily lives in the Old North End. Our youngest participant was 10, and our oldest was 85." It is a powerful exhibit and we're proud to share it with the community. Please stop by on Friday or Saturday if you're in the neighborhood. There will be snacks from our Cooking for Life program and fun activities for kids.

My first Cooking for Life class

Last week I attended my first Cooking for Life class at the O'Brien Community Center in Winooski. Thirteen Bhutanese refugees participated in the class which was taught by students from New England Culinary Institute. Cooking for Life classes are designed to improve food security for families with limited budgets. The classes teach basic cooking skills using healthy, family-friendly recipes. Participants leave each class with groceries to practice making the recipes at home. Since arriving at the Campaign I've learned a lot from the Cooking for Life curriculum. My favorite recipe is the carrot bread! If you become our fan on Facebook you'll get a free Recipe Card of the Week. You can also get recipes on our website.

Below is a video of the class. For more information on how to host a class in your community contact Rebecca O'Reilly at roreilly@vtnohunger.org.

Senior Round Table

Last Thursday we organized over 30 partners from across the state to discuss seniors' access to 3SquaresVT (formerly known as food stamps). Currently, only 33% of eligible seniors are utilizing the program. Hunger among seniors is a critical issue and it is important for the state, our Congressional delegation, and all of our non-profit partners to be working on solutions. At the round table we shared some of the qualitative data we collected from senior focus groups we hosted around the state. We also heard presentations from Renee Richardson, State Nutrition Program Director; Dottie Rosenbaum, Senior Policy Analyst from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Maria Cimini, SNAP Outrach Coordinator from University of Rhode Island Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America; and our own Angela Smith-Dieng, 3SquaresVT Outreach & Policy Specialist at the Campaign. Our next steps will be to implement the group's recommendations which include an improved outreach plan and innovations to the 3SquaresVT program. Many thanks to our board member, Fran Stoddard who skillfully facilitated the meeting!

Understanding "Area Eligibility"

Currently, 29,000 kids in Vermont access free or reduced price meals during the school year and only 5,000 of those kids have access to meal programs in their communities during the summer. The 24,000 kids who don't have access to meals in the summer are at much higher risk of obesity and falling behind their peers when school is back in session.

There are two ways the Campaign is making a difference on this issue. First, we are working with communities to assure there are good quality summer programs for all kids that include nutrition programs. Second, Congress is preparing to take up child nutrition reauthorization this year. We are working with our Congressional delegation on improving the area eligibility threshold for open summer meal sites and free school meal programs from 50% to 40% of the federal poverty level, which would increase access to nutritious food for children. In Vermont, this change would affect over 60 school districts and 13,000 more kids would become eligible to access meals year round.

The map below gives a visual of what this change would mean for Vermont kids. The red areas on the map are currently eligible. If area eligibility was lowered to 40%, the blue areas could also become eligible.

Summer Food Kick Off

Friday, June 26th was the 2009 Summer Food Kick Off hosted by Burlington Parks & Recreation, Burlington School Systems, and the Campaign. Lisa Pino, Deputy Administrator of the nation's Food and Nutrition Program at the USDA attended along with Vermont Secretary of Human Services, Rob Hofman, Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss, and the Burlington Firefighters Association. After we ate our delicious lunches (all beef hot dogs, wheat rolls, and fresh Intervale fruits & veggies), the grown-ups headed to H.O. Wheeler School for a community round table with our USDA partners. It was a tremendously successful event! The Campaign and our partners had the opportunity to share our successes and challenges implementing the federal nutrition programs in our small, rural state. Check out the video from the event!

Wonderful Staff

This week I got lots of quality time with our Program Team at their Tuesday retreat. In the morning they completed a Multiple Intelligence Assessment and then moved forward to create their team mission statement. In the afternoon we headed to the O'Brien Community Center in Winooski to cook the community meal for the COTS Day Station. I'm reminded on a daily basis what a talented, smart, and generous team we have at the Campaign.

On that note, today Ann and Maisie came in to my office dressed in the fruit costumes for tomorrow's Summer Food Kick off in Burlington.

Maisie as a Strawberry

Ann as a Fair Trade Banana

Rebecca O'Reilly and I make six loaves of Cooking for Life Carrot Bread

The Program Team discussing their mission statement

2009 Annual Meeting

It was a pleasure to see all of our board members at our annual meeting on June 10th. We welcomed many new faces to the table and celebrated the contributions of departing board members. This meeting was also the launch of our strategic planning process. Our wonderful consultant, Jim Lefevre took us through a "visioning" exercise for the whole board and staff. We wrote "achievements" on one side of an index card and "impact" on the other. Then we all shared our hopes and dreams for the impact and achievements of the Campaign as if we were waking up on the morning of January 1, 2015. I spread all the cards out on my desk after the meeting to take it all in. The common threads among the cards are quite remarkable, my favorite being Vermont becomes a leader and model for ending hunger.

Many thanks to the wonderful people at Allscripts who let us use their conference space! The whole board won't convene again until October, but we have board orientation to look forward to this summer!

Northeast Regional Anti-Hunger Network

I snapped these photos on my iPhone last week while meeting with the Northeast Regional Anti-Hunger Network. This is a group of leaders in the anti-hunger movement from various organizations across New England and New York. We come together on a bi-monthly basis to meet with our partners at the USDA, FNS, and FRAC to make policy and program recommendations. We also share strategies and best practices for local, state, and federal advocacy and outreach. At this meeting we discussed our important role in advocating for changes to Child Nutrition Reauthorization. Thank you to Project Bread for hosting us!

Hunger in the Summer

Yesterday I was a guest on Vermont Public Radio's Vermont Edition with John Sayles from the Vermont Foodbank. During the academic year, 29,000 Vermont children rely on free or reduced priced meals. When the school doors close in June, many children lose their most reliable source of consistent and balanced nutrition. The Campaign works with over 50 organizations, municipalities, and schools to provide healthful meals to over 5,600 Vermont kids at approximately 150 summer food sites statewide to help fill this gap. Check out our interview on VPR!

Spring Hunger Council Meetings

One of the most successful elements of our work with Northfield Savings Bank over the last three years was the creation of Hunger Councils in Washington and Chittenden counties. This month we hosted meetings in both counties to plan out the future work of the councils. Each council identified areas that need discussion, action, and community support. We'll be working with our council co-chairs over the summer to lay out the next year's discussions and plans. Both councils also agreed to participate in "World Cafe" discussions as part of the Campaign's strategic planning process launching June 10th. We are very lucky to have such dedicated, caring, and connected volunteers investing their time and energy in these critical issues.

At the Chittenden Countil Hunger Council meeting, May 19th

Recording ideas for future work with our small group.

Three more years!

We are delighted to announce that Northfield Savings Bank will continue its generous support of the Campaign's work for the next three years! Please check out the video of yesterday's press conference as well as today's Burlington Free Press article and news coverage on WCAX.

Thank you Northfield Savings Bank and the Northfield Savings Bank Foundation for this honor!

Renewing Our Partnership

Today we were thrilled to host our friends from the Vermont Foodbank at the Campaign offices. John Sayles, the new CEO at VFB and I agreed that as new executives renewing and deepening the partnership between our two organizations is essential to ending hunger in Vermont. We started on this path by hosting a "Get to Know the Campaign" presentation at our office for John, Julie-Ann Graves, and Chris Foster. In the coming months I'll head to VFB with Campaign staff to learn more about VFB's core services. In the future we hope to identify more areas where the two organizations can come together towards our common mission. It was a wonderful meeting and I am so excited for the future of our partnership!

(From left to right) Julie-Ann Graves, CFO at VFB, John Sayles, CEO at VFB,

and Marissa Parisi, Executive Director at VTCECH

Sarah Kunz, Nutrition Program & Policy Specialist at VTCECH

(From left to right) Joanne Heidkamp, Program Manager at VTCECH, and

Chris Foster, Chief Development Officer at VFB

First 100 Days

Some of the Campaign staff at the Vermont State House

Hunger Awareness Day

February 12th, 2009

Wednesday marked my 100th day as Executive Director at that the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger. As I’ve become more grounded in the needs of our organization and Vermont communities I’ve begun taking steps to create long-term plans for our organizational growth and development. Going forward we must continually rise to meet the needs of Vermonters so that hunger becomes a distant memory. No small task.

The staff at the Campaign always has our mission in their sights. They spend hours understanding how income changes will affect families’ 3SquaresVT benefits. They help schools with lengthy federal applications for meal programs. They’re on site when schools reapply for summer programs with another lengthy application and different reimbursement formulas. They work with schools on balancing budgets to afford locally-grown fruits and vegetables for snack time. Without our dedicated staff very little of this vital work would happen, and there is always more to do.

Currently 3SquaresVT (formerly known as Food Stamps) has the highest participation rate the state of Vermont has ever seen -70,000+ participants. Children who eat meals in school or in a child care setting get 500+ nutritious meals a year. Our work enhances the well-being of Vermont’s children and their families.

With more than 60,000 families in Vermont still experiencing food insecurity there is a great deal of work ahead of us. I believe the Campaign has the right people at the right time to find sustainable solutions to hunger. I look forward to working with our advocates, donors, partners, and friends to make change!