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October 2013 Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE
First Annual Local Crunch for Lunch on 10/16
New Statewide Initiative - Live Healthy Vermont
VT Health Connect Tips from BCBS of VT
Farm-Based Education Forum 10/22-23
Upcoming Events
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Please join us for A Place at the Table - a Film and Panel Discussion on the issue of hunger in America - Wednesday, October 16th, at the Davis Center, UVM, Burlington.
   
5:30-6:00 Reception
6:00-7:30 Movie
7:30-8:15 Panel Discussion

A Place at the Table is a riveting film that tells the story of hunger in the United States. We hope you will participate in this discussion of ways organizations and communities can help to solve hunger issues here in Vermont.

Introduction: Will Raap, Founder of The Intervale Center, Restoring Our Watershed and Gardener's Supply 

 

Special Guest: Roger Doiron, Founder, Kitchen Gardeners International

  

Panelists: Rob Meehan, Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf; Jess Hyman, Vermont Community Garden Network; Tyler Doggett, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, UVM; Faye Conte, 3SquaresVT, Hunger Free Vermont; Rita Markley, Committee on Temporary Shelter


Co-sponsored by: Vermont Community Garden Network, UVM Food Systems Initiative, Burlington Food Council, Gardener's Supply Company, UVM Extension, and Vermont FEED.
 
Click here for more information.
First Annual "Local Crunch for Lunch" 
at a school near you on October 16th

To celebrate National Farm to School Month and Take Your Parents to Lunch Day, the Vermont Farm to School Network is sponsoring the first annual "Local Crunch for Lunch" this Wednesday, October 16th.

 

All over Vermont, schools will feature at least one locally-grown item in the lunch that day. Schools will take pictures of students and parents in the cafeteria with a "Local Crunch for Lunch"  banner and then share them on the Vermont Farm to School Network website. 

 

To find out if your school is participating, click here.

 

Visit farmtoschoolmonth.org for other ways to celebrate and to take the Farm to School Counts Pledge (which gives you a chance to win a CASH prize for your FTS program). Once you plan your event, post it on the Vermont Farm to School Network calendar.

National Farm to School Month Logo  

Vermont FEED Supports New Statewide Initiative Live Healthy Vermont

Live Healthy VTlogo  

Vermont FEED is taking part in Live Healthy Vermont, a new statewide coalition to develop and implement a policy agenda to combat the rise in chronic diseases. The coalition's first priority is to target the main driver of chronic disease - obesity. 

 

Live Healthy Vermont has identified key policy initiatives designed to target the many causes of obesity. Some of these include:

  • Educating legislators about the importance of limiting liability of schools that make their facilities available after hours to the public for physical activity
  • Changing Vermont's School Education Quality Standards to improve school nutrition by:
    • Requiring schools to schedule recess prior to lunch
    • Requiring schools to serve breakfast after the bell by expanding models such as breakfast in the classroom and grab and go breakfast carts
    • Ensuring students have no less than 10 minutes to eat breakfast and no less than 20 minutes to eat lunch. This time does not include the time it takes to get to and from the cafeteria and to get their meal
To read the full list of policy initiatives, visit livehealthyvt.org. The group is seeking additional organizational members. If you are interested, please contact Peter Sterling at (802) 279-6840, peter@healthcaresecurityvt.org.

This month's Healthy & Happy You column from our sustaining sponsor Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont is about Vermont Health Connect.

 

If you're like many Vermonters, the way you buy health insurance is changing. If you own or work for a business with 50 or fewer employees, or if you don't have coverage through work, you will soon buy coverage on the state-run health benefit exchange, Vermont Health Connect.


Tips for staying covered in 2014: 

  • If you own a business with 50 or fewer employees, decide early whether to sponsor a plan for your employees. You need to consider many factors, including tax implications and the average household incomes of your employees. Our online decision support tools can help.
  • Use our online plan-match tool to find the plan closest to what you have now. Or put the factors that are important to you into our plan-finder tool where you can choose a plan before even logging on to Vermont Health Connect.
  • If you are purchasing as an individual, choose a plan and pay for your coverage as soon as you are able. Many thousands of Vermonters will enroll this fall and choosing early will ensure that you get your member materials by January 1. You may pay online with a credit or debit card or withdrawal from a checking account.
  • Be sure you have all the information you need when you log on to Vermont Health Connect, especially the social security number of the person in your household who will serve as the subscriber and information about your household income. Having a copy of last year's taxes may be handy. At any point in your transition, we are ready to help.
Contact us at (800) 255-4550, exchangeteam@bcbsvt.com, or in person at our headquarters in Berlin or our new Information and Wellness Center, Blue Mall, South Burlington.

 

BC BS of VT logo  

Farmers, educators and service providers are coming together in a first-of-its-kind event at Shelburne Farms October 22 - 23rd at the Farm-Based Education Forum: Agritourism, Education and Economics on Your Farm. Workshops will discuss the opportunities and challenges that the public can bring to farms and will share tools for offering memorable, authentic on-farm experiences. 

 

Please join us and help strengthen agritourism and farm-based education in Vermont. Click here register. Scholarships available. Contact Vera Simon-Nobes for more information, (802) 985-0382.