ADDISON COUNTY — More than 80,000 preK-12 Vermont children will leave school with an extra skip in their step next month when the spring semester gives way to summer vacation.

And while summer away from school can be a blast, hunger never takes a holiday. Many parents brace for the longest school vacation with a mixture of joy and trepidation. Joy, knowing there’s an opportunity for more family time, but also anxiety about how to fill the breakfast and lunch void for their kids when school cafeterias close.

Well, summer food won’t be a hurdle this summer for children ages 18 and younger, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture again this year will subsidize both breakfast and lunch at more than 275 free meal sites throughout Vermont — including several here in Addison County.

Yes, we mean free.

No application.

No registration.

“We want to make it very clear to folks that there’s no risk to summer meals funding this year. We’re maintaining an active eye on that, but there are absolutely no signs of cuts this year,” said Erica Morrell, the meal programs specialist with Hunger Free Vermont, a nonprofit whose mission includes “protecting and expanding nutrition programs so everyone can get the food they need with dignity,” according to hungerfreevt.org.

Parents — especially those on tight budgets — are happy to grab a wedge of food stability amid this period of high grocery prices and federal cuts. Morrell said that while free summer meals are secure for 2025, the future is murky for federal food assistance. The House Agriculture Committee late last week advanced a budget reconciliation bill that reflected an estimated $300 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during the next decade. SNAP in Vermont is known as 3SquaresVT.

“People are really in need right now, and these kinds of (free summer meals) programs take the edge off,” said Kathy Alexander, director of school nutrition services for the Mount Abraham and Addison Northwest school districts. “What I’m hearing is they’re like a stress reliever for parents. One less thing they have to worry about is whether their child is going to be well fed during the day.”

Hunger Free Vermont will finalize the list of statewide summer meal sites on June 1, Morrell said. Please visit hungerfreevt.org/summer-meals after that date to get the full picture of what’s available in your area.

LOCAL OFFERINGS

In the meantime, here’s what you can expect to see in Addison County, based on interviews with Alexander and Steve Marinelli, director of food nutrition services for the Addison Central School District.

Summer meal programming in our area is expected to begin June 23 and last through Aug. 8.

In the MAUSD (Bristol area) and ANWSD (Vergennes area) area, free breakfasts and lunches for kids and teens will be offered at locations including Vergennes Union Elementary School, serving the Vergennes Commodore Program.

“It will also be an open site, so any kids not enrolled in that program could come in and get a daily meal there,” Alexander said.

In addition, food will be dispensed through Bristol’s recreation programs, with Mount Abraham Union High School serving as a focal point for breakfast and lunch.

Both VUES and MAUHS on Fridays will also dispense weekend meal kits, according to Alexander, acknowledging that families’ larders can get bare on Saturdays and Sundays, too.

So your children aren’t participating in municipal recreation programs? No problem. You’ll be able to pick up a to-go meal kit from Vergennes Union High School, Monkton Central School, New Haven Library or Starksboro’s Robinson School. Alexander believes distribution will take place mostly on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and pickup times have yet to be set.

Meal kits, according to Hunger Free Vermont, are made possible through the USDA’s Non-Congregate Meal Service. The department granted a waiver for to-go summer meals during the COVID pandemic.

MAUSD and ANWSD families whose children don’t access daily free meals during summer camp programs can get a seven-day meal box through Monkton Central School, New Haven Library or Starksboro’s Robinson School. Seven-day meal kits won’t be available through Mount Abe or VUES, because children will already be receiving daily meals at those outlets. But those two larger sites will dispense weekend meal kits, according to Alexander.

As the Independent went to press, Alexander said free meals were being considered for the Ark Preschool summer camp at Victory Baptist Church in Vergennes. Camp Common Ground in Starksboro is also on the list.

ON THE MENU

So what kind of food will be served up from the MAUHS and VUES kitchens?

According to Alexander, breakfast items will include some combination of the following: A whole-grain croissant or muffin, milk, fruit, breakfast burrito, or breakfast sandwich.

“There’s always fruit; that’s one of our requirements,” Alexander said.

As for lunches: “Kids during the summer are running around and, on the go, so it’s not an elaborate meal,” she stressed. “It’s often a sandwich or wrap, yogurt parfaits — things that are appealing to children on hot days. And we always have a fresh vegetable and fruit, with a milk, of course.”

Children who qualify for seven-day meal boxes will receive a variety of fresh fruit, produce — such as peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, apples, bananas and oranges. There will be muffins, a breakfast bar, tuna fish, chicken, Cabot cheddar cheese, yogurt and other foods designed to be parsed out for the child during their week.

“We’ve created this whole menu that goes with it,” Alexander said, adding, “the food is specifically kid friendly.”

For example, a one week kit might include the fixings for melted cheese on a bagel, or tuna salad.

Marinelli, meanwhile, is setting the table for free summer meal programs in the district that includes Bridport, Cornwall, Middlebury, Ripton, Salisbury, Shoreham and Weybridge.

He confirmed the ACSD will be operating meal sites at  Mary Hogan Elementary School, Middlebury Union Middle School (MUMS), Shoreham and Salisbury elementary schools, and at Middlebury’s Memorial Sports Center — where the popular Camp Kookamunga for kids is held each summer.

Breakfast and lunch will be available Monday through Friday at the five ACSD sites. In addition, the MUMS and Mary Hogan sites will offer weekend meal kits to take away on Fridays.

Unlike at MAUSD and ANWSD meal sites, the ACSD won’t offer seven-day meal kits. That’s because Marinelli and his staff are committed to making hot meals for three of the five weekdays. And hot meals aren’t always a wise add to a weeklong food package, he reasoned.

ACSD sites gave away around 30,000 meals last summer, and Marinelli is expecting good demand this year, too.

Who knows what next year will bring in the world of federal nutrition programming. But come this June, it’ll be “ready, set, play and eat” for hundreds of Addison County kids.

“We definitely feel our programs are going to be targets in one way or another. It seems like the federal government is cutting everything, and cutting essential programs is not out of the realm of possibility,” Alexander said. “But I have to live right now in the moment and make sure we do everything we can to support families now, with the resources that we have. We are bracing ourselves for what’s coming, but I can’t make that part of my operational planning.”

John Flowers is at [email protected].