How a Small Vermont School District Served 43,500 Summer Meals

Nestled in the lush green rolling hills of the West River Valley in Townshed, Vermont, lies Windham Central Supervisory Union. Windham is a small, rural school district with an enrollment just shy of 800 students. 

Through the USDA’s Summer Food Service Program, the district qualifies for the rural bulk meal waiver, meaning it has the potential to reach children who otherwise might not have access to fresh food while schools are out from June to August. Every child under 18 is eligible to receive this benefit regardless of enrollment, meaning entire families in the surrounding area can receive free meals. This summer, Windham distributed 3,113 grocery bags, supplying 43,582 meals to children and families!

We connected with food service director Jacob Gallogly about how his district’s school meal program made this possible and how it continues to nourish students year-round. 

Nourishing Students Year-Round

Why is the rural bulk meal waiver significant in your community?

Jacob Gallogly: Put simply, this waiver provides food security to hundreds of families throughout our community. Whether they rely on this food or not, the rural bulk meal waiver gives us the green light to provide all of this amazing food free of cost to each and every parent who seeks it out.

What types of local food did you provide students throughout the summer, and how has this encouraged scratch-cooking beyond the cafeteria? 

Jacob Gallogly: When I say local, I mean produced or grown less than 90 minutes away. This is an approximate list of all the local products we provided to families free of charge this summer:

Is there anything else you want to share about the success of your summer meal program? 

Jacob Gallogly: Knowing how districts in more populated areas are required to operate during the summer months, it is not lost on me how fortunate we are to be able to offer this program to our students and their families. I’m not a religious man, but I feel that this waiver is a literal blessing. We take our purchasing power to local producers and farms, and use their products to feed our neighbors and friends. From the quality of the food to the financial relief that the bags provide, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive all around. We are very proud of our efforts and plan to continue this program for as long as possible. 

Windham participates in our Get Schools Cooking program, our most hands-on initiative helping school food programs transition from a heat-and-serve to a scratch-cooking operational model. Program participants receive a $35,000 Systems Assistance Grant for equipment upgrades and training. 

Vermont passed the Universal School Meals Act in 2023, which provides free school meals to all students, regardless of household income. How has this changed your school meal program?

Jacob Gallogly: We saw a drastic increase in participation. This gave us the opportunity to make incremental changes that eventually snowballed into serious program reform. My district decided to hire a dedicated food service director, and from there, we were able to build this amazing program that we have today.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that universal school meals would benefit any state that is smart enough to adopt the policy. It blows my mind that there is not already bipartisan buy-in on a federal level. I might be biased, but how does any American — let alone a politician — argue that anything else in the world is more important than the health and well-being of America’s youth? We shouldn’t revert to comparing and criticizing perceived economic systems when it comes to making sure kids in America have clean food to eat.

The Get Schools Cooking program is made possible thanks to generous funding support from Whole Kids, a pillar of Whole Foods Market Foundation, the Rachael Ray Foundation, and Waverley Street Foundation. Visit our Get Schools Cooking webpage to learn more about this innovative initiative or sign up for our interest list to stay updated on program news and get notified when applications open.