During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vital Communities has managed two programs that pay local restaurants to make free meals for people in need, using in part locally grown ingredients: Upper Valley Everyone Eats and Claremont Everyone Eats.
We’re highlighting the work of our Upper Valley Everyone Eats partners to encourage the community to support the folks and…
This is the second in a series of portraits of some of the restaurants, caterers, growers, social service agencies, and…
Prize Supports Regional Project to Increase Local, BIPOC-grown ingredients in meals for UVM Dining Services Thanks to a $200,000 “Food…
This is the first in a series of portraits of some of the restaurants, caterers, growers, social service agencies, and…
We’re thrilled to be celebrating another milestone for Vermont Everyone Eats. Over 2 million meals have been served! This statewide…
Good news for those who love to cook and those who need that good food the most: The State of…
Westminster, VT, July 14, 2021 – Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE), the innovative COVID-19 response program that provides meal assistance to…
On Thursday, April 29, Vermont Everyone Eats, an innovative COVID-19 response program, is celebrating 1 million restaurant meals served to…
Watch coverage of Claremont Everyone Eats by WCAX-TV reporter Adam Sullivan. Originally broadcast March 24, 2021.
Thanks to a grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Upper Valley Everyone Eats model is crossing the Connecticut…
With the close of 2020 came a pause for Upper Valley Everyone Eats (UVEE), the local hub of Vermont’s coronavirus…
Upper Valley Everyone Eats is the local hub of Vermont Everyone Eats, the statewide coronavirus relief program that pays Vermont restaurants $10/meal to prepare free, nutritious meals to Vermonters experiencing food insecurity. The program accomplishes three goals: providing a revenue stream to hard-hit local restaurants, providing food to Vermonters in need, and supporting the state’s local agricultural economy, by stipulating that at least 10% of meal ingredients must be sourced locally.
Step 1: Participating restaurants prepare nutritious meals with at least 10% local ingredients. They package them individually and refrigerate or freeze them.
Step 2: The meals are delivered to Upper Valley food shelves, community meal sites, schools, and senior centers. All meal sites are in Vermont and most are open to the public.
Step 3: Community members seeking food assistance head to their local meal site (find the full list in the FAQ section below) to receive free UVEE meals.
Step 4: Restaurants are paid $10 per meal by UVEE.
These steps happen almost every day of the week!
Open to the general public:
Bethel Food Shelf, Bethel
Bradford Public Library, Bradford
Help@FairleeVT, Fairlee (free food distribution on Fridays 10-11 am at 75 Town Common Road, Fairlee)
Newbury (VT) Bible Church
Randolph Area Food Shelf
The Haven Food Shelf, White River Junction
Thetford Food Shelf, Thetford
Trinity Evangelical Free Church Food Shelf, Windsor
West Fairlee Food Shelf, West Fairlee
White River Junction United Methodist Church’s Sharing & Caring Food Pantry, White River Junction
Windsor Veggie Van Go, Windsor
Woodstock Food Shelf, Woodstock
Closed to the general public:
Clara Martin, Randolph location
Hartford High School, Hartford
Hartland Elementary School, Hartland
Ottauquechee School, Quechee
Thetford Elementary School, Thetford
Thompson Senior Center, Woodstock
Tunbridge Central School, Tunbridge
The Wilder School, Wilder
White River School, Hartford
Westshire Elementary School, West Fairlee
Windsor Meals on Wheels, Windsor
If someone in your household attends one of the schools listed above and you’d like to receive free weekly UVEE meals for everyone in your household, contact your school to sign-up.
If you are within the range of one of the senior centers or meals on wheels programs listed above, and would like to receive delivery of Meals on Wheels meals (suggested donation), plus some additional free UVEE meals, contact that senior center or meals on wheels program to sign-up.
We encourage additional Vermont community food sites to contact us to join the project and share locally produced meals with their patrons. Contact us at uvee@vitalcommunities.org to learn more and get your site on the roster.
Eligibility: Free UVEE meals are for any Vermonter who is experiencing food insecurity, or whose food security has been impacted by the pandemic. There are multiple ways the pandemic may have impacted a household’s ability to obtain food. If the pandemic has impacted a Vermont household’s ability to obtain sufficient affordable, nutritious food in any way, that household is eligible for UVEE meals.
Sign-up: In most open to the public UVEE meal sites, there is no sign-up process, but check with your preferred meal site(s) to be sure. At most food shelves and community dinners, the process is simple: show up and take a meal. No paperwork, no sign-ups.
At most meal sites, meal recipients are welcome to take more than one meal, either for themselves or for others.
As of December 2021, we are not accepting new restaurants to Upper Valley Everyone Eats, but we may in the near future; email uvee@vitalcommunities.org to express interest in participating. That said, another program of Vermont Everyone Eats, the Localvore voucher program, is something we’re encouraging all Vermont restaurants to consider. In the voucher program, meal recipients purchase to-go meals directly from participating restaurants with Localvore App-based vouchers. Meals are reimbursed at $10/meal. To learn more, submit this form.
Upper Valley Everyone Eats is a project of Vermont Everyone Eats. Vermont Everyone Eats is made possible through a grant provided by the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development to Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA).
Upper Valley Everyone Eats is the local hub of the Vermont coronavirus relief program, Vermont Everyone Eats. Vermont Everyone Eats is made possible through a grant provided by the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development to Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA). The funding was allocated by the Vermont legislature. The program is designed to support Vermont restaurants, Vermont food producers, and Vermont food security.
If you are interested in advocating for or supporting a New Hampshire Everyone Eats, please contact us at uvee@vitalcommunities.org.
Thank you for asking! We are excited about it, too. Meal sites may need volunteers to distribute food, and we welcome volunteer drivers to help deliver meals from restaurants to meal sites. We may raise additional funds to continue or expand the program. If you are interested in helping in any way, email us uvee@vitalcommunities.org and we will keep in touch!
There are many places and ways to get food assistance, whether you live in New Hampshire or Vermont.
Check Upper Valley Strong’s list of Upper Valley food access programs and sites.
Call 211. This hotline is staffed by knowledgeable people who will help you find the food resources that fit your circumstances. The number will work in both New Hampshire and Vermont.
Consider long standing federal food assistance resources like SNAP (known as 3SquaresVT in Vermont), WIC, and free and reduced school meals, which, due to the pandemic, are currently free for all children up to 18 years of age, whether they’re enrolled in school or not. Contact your school to learn more.
Current
Maple Street Catering
Global Village Foods
The Windsor Diner
The Newbury Village Store Cafe
Past
Piecemeal Pies
Lake Morey Resort
Moon and Stars
Simon Pearce
We hope you’ll join us in thanking them for being such terrific partners in this project.
Upper Valley Everyone Eats (UVEE) to date: Since September 2020, UVEE has worked with 10 Upper Valley restaurants to provide over 133,000 meals to Vermonters experiencing food insecurity, providing $1.33 million in income for local restaurants. UVEE has worked with more than 45 distribution partners, all on the Vermont side of the Connecticut River.
Claremont Everyone Eats: CEE distributed 1,820 meals to 1,637 individuals in 44,658 households. It provided restaurants with $18,200 in income, of which $1,195 went to local farms and food producers.
Updated October 5, 2021
Vital Communities extended the Everyone Eats model into New Hampshire in early 2021 with a pilot program, Claremont Everyone Eats.