The Lasting Impact of Everyone Eats
Multiplier Effect Stimulated $78 Million in Additional Local Spending Westminster, Vt. — Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE), the innovative, statewide, $49…
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vital Communities helped to manage two programs that paid local restaurants to make free meals for community members, using in part locally grown ingredients: Upper Valley Everyone Eats and Claremont Everyone Eats.
Multiplier Effect Stimulated $78 Million in Additional Local Spending Westminster, Vt. — Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE), the innovative, statewide, $49…
Everyone Eats is ending, but hunger in the Upper Valley continues. Here are ways you can find help and support…
After two-and-a-half years and 3.5 million free meals that helped Vermont restaurants, farmers, and eaters weather the COVID pandemic, Vermont…
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 crossed the Connecticut River: Vital Communities worked…
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 was the regional hub of Vermont Everyone Eats, the statewide coronavirus relief program that paid Vermont restaurants $10/meal to prepare free, nutritious meals to Vermonters impacted by the pandemic. The program accomplished three goals: providing a revenue stream to hard-hit local restaurants, providing food to Vermonters, 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 prepared nutritious meals with at least 10% local ingredients. They packaged them individually and refrigerated or froze them.
Step 2: The meals weredelivered to Upper Valley food shelves, community meal sites, schools, and senior centers. All meal sites were in Vermont and most were open to the public, with schools being the exception.
Step 3: Community members headed to their local meal site (find the full list in the FAQ section below) to receive free UVEE meals.
Step 4: Restaurants werepaid $10 per meal by UVEE.
These steps happened almost every day of the week!
Since September 2020, UVEE has worked with 11 Upper Valley restaurants to provide over 200,000 meals to Vermonters, providing over $2 million in income for local restaurants. Additionally, through the UVEE program local farms and producers received over $521,000 as a part of creating those meals. UVEE has worked with more than 30 meal sites throughout that time, with the help of many partner organizations and dedicated community volunteers.
Updated May 10, 2023
Vital Communities extended the Everyone Eats model into New Hampshire in early 2021 with a pilot program, Claremont Everyone Eats.
The Impact: 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.
Learn more about the development and launch of the Claremont Everyone Eats program here.