Updated November 2020

Author: Physical Activity and Nutrition Program, Vermont Department of Health

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides nutrition benefits to eligible low-income households so they can purchase food from authorized food retailers. SNAP-Ed provides education to improve the likelihood that people eligible for SNAP will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose physically active lifestyles consistent with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the USDA food guidance, MyPlate.

The Vermont Department of Health provides SNAP-Ed grant funding to the Vermont Foodbank and Hunger Free Vermont (HFVT) to implement strategies in accordance with federal SNAP-Ed guidance which requires a combination of educational strategies accompanied by environmental supports designed to facilitate voluntary adoption of healthy food choices and active lifestyles. In Vermont, this work is being conducted in the Barre, Rutland, St Johnsbury, Newport and Bennington districts. These areas were selected based on several factors including household income, rates of obesity and other chronic conditions, and numbers of families eligible for SNAP.

For policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies, the Vermont Foodbank implements VT Fresh, in which Foodbank staff work with participating community food shelves, meal programs and mobile food pantries to improve their displays, promotions and messaging tools to encourage customers to choose fruits and vegetables. VT Fresh emphasizes the prominence, convenience and availability of fresh fruits and vegetables with point-of-decision prompts, improved displays, signage and promotions of those products.

HFVT implements two PSE strategies, Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care, (NAP SACC) and the Smarter Lunchrom Movement (SLM). NAPSACC is an evidence-based program that assists early childcare centers to assess their policies and environments related to healthy food, physical activity and screen time, and supports their efforts to make improvements in those areas. Staff from HFVT have been trained to lead centers through the NAP SACC assessment, planning and implementation. HFVT staff identify and recruit centers, walk them through the assessment, and work with them to identify and implement PSE strategies that are best for their sites. With SLM, HFVT staff work with school food service personnel to assess lunchroom policies and environments related to healthy food offerings, displays, and promotions. Once assessed, schools choose goals to improve the environment to help students and staff make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Both the Vermont Foodbank and HFVT estimate the number of PSEs that will be adopted by the end of the grant year. They each submit quarterly program reports to the State describing progress toward recruiting and working with sites to assess and identify PSEs to implement. The number reported here is from the year-end grantee reports of the “final” cumulative count of policy, systems and environmental changes adopted by food shelves and early childcare centers, each year, that are supported by SNAP-Ed in Vermont.

• Department for Children and Families: Fosters the healthy development, safety, well-being and self-sufficiency of Vermonters.
• Hunger Free Vermont: Works to end the injustice of hunger and malnutrition for all Vermonters helping people access food services, providing nutrition education, and raising awareness about hunger in Vermont and ways to ensure all Vermonters have access to food.
• Vermont Foodbank: Gathers and shares quality food and nurtures partnerships so that no one in Vermont will go hungry.
• Vermont Nutrition Education Committee (VNEC): Improves coordination and communication among state and private nutrition education provider agencies and federal nutrition programs; conducts statewide, cross-program nutrition education planning to promote shared goals and integrated approaches.

• Food shelves: Work in local communities to gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships so that no one in Vermont will go hungry.

• Early childcare centers: Provide childcare and education to children ages birth to 6.

The federal SNAP-Ed guidance requires implementation of obesity prevention strategies designed to facilitate voluntary adoption of healthy food choices and active lifestyles conducive to the health and well-being of SNAP-Ed eligible people. It further states: “SNAP-Ed has the greatest potential to impact obesity prevention related behaviors of the overall low income population when it targets women and children”.

FNS requires SNAP-Ed programs use evidence-based or best-practice informed, direct educational interventions combined with environmental and/or policy level strategies. They provide a toolkit of evidence-based obesity prevention strategies and interventions appropriate for SNAP-Ed.

The Vermont Department of Health will continue to support the Vermont Foodbank and Hunger Free Vermont’s work in the five SNAP-Ed communities. The projects are funded annually with progress monitored throughout the year through:

• Quarterly reports
• Site visits by the State
• E-mail conversations
• Partner meetings that all attend such as the Vermont Nutrition Education Committee (VNEC) and Farm to Plate Food Access

Based on the above monitoring, the State provides assistance, guidance, and resources as necessary to ensure success by the grantees toward meeting their goals.