Press release

For publication May 4, 2021

Contact: Sara Teachout
(802) 371-3254
[email protected]

A new food pilot was born in April as an offshoot of the hugely successful Everyone Eats Vermont project. This idea came from Sue Minter, Executive Director of Capstone, with the aim of expanding mobility to Vermonters through better transportation and access to food.

By decentralizing the grocery shelf delivery system and delivering meals in partnership with childcare services, Capstone is responding to what people need to be successful parents and easy access to healthy meals was high on the list. “The Everyone Eats project has been hugely successful at a time when small businesses and Vermonters are struggling, and the Orange County Parents and Children pilot is the next step in meeting people where they are,” says Casey Engels, program manager and specialist for all food projects with Capstone Community Action. The Central Vermont Hub is partnering with ten restaurants to bring 5,000 meals a week to Vermonters through June 30th. In the end, the Orange County Parent Child Center’s Food Pilot may be able to expand the concept while going in a slightly different direction.

“We have adopted and maximized the ‘everyone eats’ concept to reach families cared for by the Orange County Parent Child Center in this pilot,” said Eloise Reid, food security specialist at Capstone. “This pilot is really a collaboration. It’s inspiring to see what can happen when we take an idea and find community solutions to weave them together. “

All the first signs point to success with this new model.

Each week, 130 meals are cooked, packaged, and frozen by the Community Kitchen Academy and added to boxes of fresh produce and nutritious shelf-stable foods from the Vermont Food Bank. The boxes are then assembled at Capstone Community Action in Barre and loaded into cars by volunteers from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont. Blue Cross staff take the food to Orange County’s Parent Children Center in Tunbridge, where it is distributed throughout the week to families cared for by the center.

In the first week of the pilot, 70 meals were distributed. This doubled the number of families served through the center through a partnership with Vermont Foodbank as the monthly distributor for VeggieVanGo products. These distribution systems made the Orange County Parent Child Center a natural fit for the pilot.

The center reaches families for the pilot through its home visit programs and integrated services for children, as well as through social media and word of mouth. “We have noticed since the beginning of the COVID families that many families – not just the ‘high risk people’ – are struggling with many families,” said Mary Ellen Otis, director of the Orange County Parent Child Center for 20 years. “We are currently 50% enrolled in our early intervention center because one parent in a family is not working due to a virtual school or because they have lost their job. Not working creates incredible stress for the family. Even families who swam with the middle income a year ago were badly affected. “

“It is important to us that our families don’t jump through hoops to get the support they need. If you can take advantage of the support we offer, take it, ”says Otis, conveying the deep care for her community in her no-nonsense approach to leadership. One way the center can level the playing field for families is by providing universal meals in their childcare program. The center serves breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks to every single child regardless of income. Otis believes this is an important factor in ensuring that every child, despite their family’s circumstances, has access to healthy food that particular month.

“I don’t think anyone thought a year ago that we would be in this place. We all thought it was just temporary, ”says Otis. The food pilot is stepping into the void created by the economic upheaval that hit so many Vermont households this spring.

John Sayles, the CEO of Vermont Foodbank, believes the pilot will help overcome some of the challenges Vermont families face. “I don’t know any parent who doesn’t want their child to thrive. Even so, Vermont parents who do their best still run into barriers, and even small ones add up and wear you down. Being able to rely on some nutritious food when you pick up your child can feel like a miracle. Vermont Foodbank is excited to partner with Capstone to support families so all of our children can thrive. “

This has been a challenging year for everyone. As people stay closer to home, connecting families to support can be difficult.

“The goal is to meet people where they are. Families are already walking through the doors at Orange County Parent Child Center, so getting hold of food is a relatively easy step, ”says Eloise Reid of Capstone. Capstone’s dynamic team has an infectious enthusiasm for developing solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems. The team reached out to Blue Cross to recruit volunteer workers to drive the grocery boxes from Capstone to Thetford. The answer was profuse.

“Our relationship with the Blue Cross team was critical to the success of this pilot. They have offered reliable and lively voluntary support, ”says Engels.

The pilot is in the third week of a first thirteen week run. With part of a grant from the Office of Economic Development for Food Security and Infrastructure, Capstone was able to provide the parent-child center with a large, highly efficient freezer to preserve and store the frozen meals until they can be distributed throughout the week. Community Kitchen Academy’s meals are delicious, nutritiously balanced creations that incorporate dietary restrictions.

Community Kitchen Academy students who prepare the meals come from a broad population of Vermonters who may be underemployed, who could brush up on the critical soft skills required to succeed in a work environment, or just need a confidence boost. The program was able to move to a successful model during the pandemic by reducing class size and shifting the curriculum. Every seven-week class had five students during the pandemic, which gave them plenty of space to spread out in the kitchen. Many of the ingredients the student chefs use to prepare the meals come from farms, grocery stores, and food service companies to save nutritious foods that would otherwise be wasted. The Vermont Food Bank supplies the remaining ingredients. Students take the balance, presentation, and taste of diet into consideration when preparing meals as they earn their ServSafe and Department of Liquor Control certifications.

“A kitchen is a comfortable place,” says head chef Joey Buttendorf. “It allows students to thrive in ways that resonate with them while also providing them qualifications and certifications that have lifelong implications for their confidence and self-esteem.”

Chef Joey has an exuberant personality that is reminiscent of the warmth of a kitchen. The current class has been the New England Culinary Institute cook for 15 years and is their 22nd session of the Barre program.

As the pilot gains momentum in the coming weeks, the team will be able to assess how best to support families. “This is really a pilot project so we can evaluate what is working and what could be improved,” says Engels. “What inspires about community work is that it makes it easier to access people’s needs and that we can find ways to thrive together. The fight against time poverty and food security increases the community not only by simply caring for the people, but by solving challenges together. “

“People work, sometimes multiple jobs, raise their families and do everything to survive. The parents are pressed for time. Having a prepared meal can add time and provide families with access to healthier foods. Time is very closely related to security. Two major health burdens are relationships and food stability. “

The layers of successful people-centered programs on which this pilot is built are remarkable, and the team is constantly thinking about how to grow in ways that support the community at both local and state levels.

“We want to expand programs that work with Vermont farmers to bring local groceries to grocery shelves. By channeling grocery shelf dollars to local farms, we can connect Vermonters more closely to the Vermont food system. Creating persistence in such programs is a win-win for Vermonters, ”said Liz Scharf, director of economic development and food security in the community at Capstone. “Ideally, we want people to be able to choose their own groceries and shop for their families without worrying.”

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