 Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include the HOD of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Center Vermont Habitat for Humanity, and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, Roosevelt Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx. Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Hello and welcome to this edition of Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the differently abled. I'm your host, Lauren Seiler, and on this television program today, before we get to our guests and talk about school food, let's thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and many others, including the participation and support of the Division for the Blind in Vermont and the Association for the Blind in Vermont, and many, many others. So welcome, Teddy, and you have to pronounce your last name, please. Waszazak. Teddy Waszazak of Hungry Free Vermont is here to talk about school nutrition and the importance of it. Welcome to Ableton on Air. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk about it today. Okay, so explain the missions and goals of your agency and what you do to give children and young adults better nutrition in schools. Absolutely, so Hungry Free Vermont is an anti-hunger and anti-poverty organization. So we work to do two main things. We advocate for changes that will be made to federal and state programs, and we provide assistance to individuals, organizations, schools to access federal and state programs and get, so we will help apply for grants. We will help you with technical assistance with filling out all of the very complicated federal paperwork that schools have to fill out. You said federal paperwork. Yep, federal or state paperwork. I just think the federal stuff is typically more complicated than the state stuff. But we help with all of those things and I specifically work on the universal school meals campaign, which is our campaign to get a law passed to make sure that every student in every school across Vermont has access to breakfast and lunch every day at no cost to them or their families. Now, being affected, I've grown up in New York, you know, school food has changed. You know, you would get a tray, you would get a milk, you would get a hamburger, you would get something that's not nutritious. Can you expel the myths and legends around school food and why should it be more nutritious and how has it changed over the years? Yeah, so school meals, school meals have come a very long way in the past couple of years. I want to say it was about 10 years ago now, the federal government passed a law that raised the nutrition standards in school. So in order to get money from the federal government, you have to provide a certain level of nutrition in school. Does it go according to income? No, not the nutrition standards. The nutrition standards in every school across America, whether you're in a wealthy area like San Francisco or a less wealthy area, the nutrition standards are the same for all school meals and the federal government helps support that. In Vermont specifically last year, Hunger Free Vermont along with Vermont Feed and the Vermont Food Bank and a bunch of our other amazing partners helped get a law passed that was a local purchasing food incentive. So in other words, schools in Vermont will get extra money from the state if they buy a certain amount of their food from local farms. So that's local fruits and vegetables from gardens and orchards, local meat and local milk from cow farms, dairy farms, all across the state. Go ahead. Did you want to start asking questions? No. Take your time. Yep, yep, students. Schools have to make accommodations for students with allergies and things and in certain school districts, not all of them yet, but in some school districts, students are even provided with vegetarian alternatives. Like if a child is also kosher. Yep, yep, exactly. And so, you know, if there are chicken patties one day for lunch, there will be a vegetarian alternative, a vegan, a kosher alternative to that meal in most schools. And again, this isn't every school, but in most schools okay, now, looking at your website, I noticed some really great things here. It says, and on the top, you know, when you go to the website, which is www.hungerfreevt.org Now, can you kind of go empowerment, dignity, equality, justice? So, break down your organization in that as though it was a plate, okay, because the plate has several sections, you know, your meat, your dairy, so explain it in that way. Break down your organization and how you, you know, with equality, dignity, empowerment and how your organization is broken down. I think, I think, we believe that there is, fundamentally, we believe that there is enough food and there are enough resources that everybody should be able to have access to good quality, high nutritious food. And we think that having access to that good food is just central to someone's dignity. If you're not having access to good quality food, it's harder for you to have that in yourself. With malnutrition and all of that other thing. Exactly. And, you know, with empowerment, being able to eat well, having access to that good food, you know, it just makes your body healthier. It makes your mind healthier. You can learn better. She says that junk food is not healthy for a lot of kids the chips and everything else on a tray. But that is not that is not nutrition. Right. That gives more healthier snacks. Yep. And that's exactly one of those changes that's happened over the past few years. You know, I was talking to one food school, school food service person and they were talking about how they served as a snack one day, green peppers. And the student had never had green peppers before. They had never had it at home before. So they had those green pepper snacks in school and then they went home and told their parents, oh my god, I love green peppers. I tried them at school today. They're delicious. Won't you buy them for me? And now that student brings those fresh green peppers with them to school as their own snack. And that's all thanks to the school meal that they got. Yeah. No, absolutely. And that's one of those things that universal school meals, if all schools will be able to have access to that kind of money, we know that in schools with universal school meals, the meals get healthier. Why did it take so long? I hope your mommy asked you. Oh, no. Why did it take so long for changes? Not just for all around. Why did it take so long to get people to realize about nutrition in school? That's a great question. Yeah, no, no. That's a great question. And it's one that I agree. I don't know why it took so long for folks to figure this out. But I'm excited. We have our bill for universal school meals in the statehouse just passed out of committee yesterday. Nine to two bipartisan vote. What does that mean in this case bipartisan? Both Democrats and Republicans, nine to two, voted for this. And so I think folks are starting to realize more and more as time goes on that because, you know, we've had universal school meals for the past two years all over the country as part of the federal government's COVID response. They said schools are dealing with so much and families are going through a hard time. So let's just give kids breakfast and lunch every day for two years. We've shown that we can do it. Including snack, so it's breakfast and lunch, but then including also if they want a snack to take home or extra food, that kind of issue. Everything beyond breakfast and lunch is up to the schools. And certain schools have backpack programs where they just have quick backpacks that kids can grab that are filled with snacks and stuff. A lot of schools will have like grab and go baskets where if kids are hungry they can just grab an apple and they don't have to like grab a sandwich. Yeah, whatever it is. Speaking about sandwiches there's been some cases across and this goes according, you know, to your agency here. There's been some cases across the country where schools charge students or they have a bill that they have to pay you know a dollar, two dollars, you know whatever. But then if a child I saw some cases where if a child has a bill that's due to the school the school would take the food away and give the child a sandwich or something or nothing at all. Yep. Why I hope it's not getting too hard for you but why is that and why do the schools throw the food away? That's first of all that's wasting. That's, you know, not giving the kid nutrition and it's embarrassing the child if they cannot afford a meal they still have to eat. Absolutely. And then if some, in some cases parents pack their child the meal and the school tells the student I'm sorry you have to throw that away. Yep. Go ahead. Yeah, no, absolutely I agree with you completely and that is I'm sorry to put you on the spot. Oh no, I have to talk about this stuff all day. That's exactly what we're trying to do away with by passing this law for universal school meals. We never again in Vermont will any child ever be told no they can't have food when they're in school if we pass this bill. There will be no more school debts there will be no more money in the cafeterias there will be no more well did your mom remember to put money in your account today yes or no and if the answer is no you get no food. Everyone will just be every student will be walking in the cafeteria. They had to charge in the first place. So the way the system has always been set up and the system was first put in place in the 1940s Oh, that long. Funny enough the reason that we have school meal programs at all is because there was so much malnutrition in schools in the 1940s that the army could not recruit students out of high school because they were too malnourished. So the response to that malnourished means what can you give them a layman's can you give a definition they just they weren't getting enough food they did not weigh enough they didn't have enough muscle they weren't getting enough food and nutrition during the day to be able to get them into the armed services to fight in World War So the federal government's response was to implement school meal programs wherein the federal government would pay some money and the families would pay some money to get a school meal so if a school meal right now costs $3 the federal government will each meal cost $3 for the school to prepare each plate is $3 the federal government will give them $2 and then they have to charge the family $1 before what I was also told because it's like a some schools only are given a certain like a small budget like $1.50 or $0.75 let's say layman's terms $0.75 to a dollar per child that is not enough to feed a child a example a child go hungry yeah there's been some people live on minimum wage well I mean years ago minimum wage used to be what $7 $8 $9 right and you have to try to feed your child on that budget or you and your child on that budget enough if you're a single mother some people get they have a federal program called WIC where they get their their bread their juice their whatever food to feed that baby and the mother but can you piggyback off that like federal programs only get a small smidgen to feed we need more and this is why your program exists absolutely and so right so two things there one is what this law does is it the schools will get money from the state government as well as the federal government so it's both Washington DC and Montpelier and that will cover all of the costs so that families don't have to pay anything for their school meals and right now school meals cost on average $900 per student per year so if you have two kids and you're giving well it is like what you just said when you're working on minimum wage $900 can go a very long way so if you have two kids you make too much money to qualify for your programs but you don't make nearly enough to live a good life and you have two kids you're now spending $1800 a year just to feed your kids in school so what universal school meals does is it not only makes it more affordable for schools to do it it also saves those parents $900 per year per child so now they have more money to spend on food at home and that's what they do and that's what they do in school and what if does your organization like if somebody needs food stamps or any other food program do you help with the applications do you absolutely yep if you you know if you are not sure if you qualify for a certain program or if you get the application and we can help you fill out that paperwork we can help you get connected to services you know the more we talk to you and the more we find out you might say oh well I don't qualify for this and this program so I guess I can't do it we might know you don't qualify for this program but this program over here you do qualify for and we'd be happy to help fill out that paperwork for you and we do the same thing with schools if schools want to get a grant for example or get more money from the federal government for food yeah for food or any kind of assistance that schools need in their nutrition programs we're there to help out so go ahead with one more question take your time what say again repeat that oh okay so my wife's question is what if a child sits down to lunch and there is something that they don't like on that train there's a lot of food waste does your organization how do you deal with the food waste is there a way to make lunch is more more nutritious so because you know kids when they see some kids when they see a healthy nutritious thing they don't like tofu I don't like falafel I happen to love this stuff but some people what do you do with that cake so to start most schools nowadays have multiple options on a school day so most schools will have at least a sandwich station where a kid can ask I'd like tuna I'd like turkey and cheese they can ask for those things as well as whatever specialty lunch has been like whatever hot lunch so there's a sandwich line again this isn't everywhere but this is most schools they'll have a sandwich area and then a hot lunch area so there are some more options there for the kids or like if it's a holiday coming up they'll have like a special yeah I actually saw the Milton school district for Valentine's Day themed menu where they had like little peppermint stick bars and they had chicken that was in the shape of a heart it was very cute so special holiday meals corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day that type of deal who doesn't and you know food waste is a problem how do you deal with the food waste because years ago when it was the Board of Education in New York because it changed the Department of Education thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars are thrown in the trash yeah and that's like food waste is a national problem and it's not just in schools grocery stores grocery stores there's a ton of waste in grocery stores because the federal government says you know do X, Y, Z and then I'm going to bring restaurants up for a minute in a restaurant by law you are not allowed to serve yesterday's leftovers right you have to either donate it to a church or some other organization a food bank or something like if it's a big amount because you can't just you know you have to throw in the garbage I mean if it's like one cookie it's one cookie but I'm talking about a whole tray of food you're wasting stuff and it becomes an issue yep absolutely that's one more thing Hungry Free Vermont is working on but like I said that's not a school's problem that's a national I'm sorry to bring up national oh no not at all so now when you say same opportunity and you want people to thrive so can you go through that a little bit more is there anything that we really didn't mention that should be mentioned I think that giving folks the opportunity to thrive and giving everyone access to the same things is important we were talking earlier about New York and how in some communities there aren't grocery stores in a while there just are not healthy options available is there always a healthy option in Vermont in most cases yes but that also gets back to affordability we know that healthier foods are more expensive than sugary snacks healthy juices are more expensive than soda soy milk for example is like six bucks a cart yep so if for a family that's struggling financially because we know folks aren't making enough money for someone who's struggling financially they have to make the choice do they buy less of a healthier food or more of a food that's cheaper but not as nutritious and you got to do what you got to do so we think that that having that access to healthy nutritious food is just so important and affects so many different aspects of people's lives that it should not matter where you live or how much money you have whether you are a super rich person who lives in the middle of a big shiny city or you're someone who's not doing as well financially even in a more rural area they should all have access to the same healthy nutritious food regardless of their income now how how has COVID impacted COVID how has COVID impacted your organization or impacted school food as a whole yep so like I said earlier because of COVID all students in all schools across the country have had free breakfast and lunch and this is one of the silver linings of COVID is that what we're trying to do is to keep that going even after the pandemic we've shown that we can provide breakfast and lunch to every student at every school it is possible we've been doing it for two years so now we have to keep it up but just more broadly with COVID one in four at some point between now and when the pandemic started one in three Vermonters have been food insecure one in three people food insecure being not able to being worried about being able to get food not having enough money to get food one in three people in Vermont have experienced that over the course of the past two years and that's huge that's a huge number of people that's a number that should be arranged I mean food insecurity it's a big problem yep so it's been huge for hunger free Vermont and ourselves the staff and all of our community partners have worked so hard over the past couple years do pantries food pantries help your organization at all I'd say we help them more than they help us and I don't mean that and what I mean by that if we can mention that and what I mean is I don't mean that in a sarcastic way what I mean to say is that they're the ones who are on the ground giving out the food every day in their communities talking to folks getting them the food that they need so we want to do everything we can to support the food pantries to support the food shelves to support the Vermont food bank we work very closely with all of them especially over the course of the last two years so someone in St. John's Barry calls up and says oh I have all of these vegetables that are going to go to waste what do I do with them we had a conversation yesterday with somebody in Newport who needs vegetables so let's get those two people connected and get that food up to Newport so we do things like that all the time and we have what are called hunger councils which are pretty much just groups of organizations and people in Washington County the Northeast Kingdom, Chittenden County wherever you are and that's a combination of folks who work at Hunger Free Vermont who work at food shelves and food pantries all talking to one another and coordinating how to best get resources out to different communities okay go ahead you want to ask some more questions we have some time take your time yeah I'm saying that if families are you know repeat the question oh it is malnourishment is that well that's a huge problem because we're talking about globally but locally is malnourishment a big issue or does that go back to food insecurity or both it's tied to food insecurity with kids again over the past two years families with kids have been five times more likely to be food insecure than those who don't have kids and we know that there are kids who are just not getting access to the food that they need and universal school meals is a key piece of that because we can only control so much of what happens in people's personal lives but with universal school meals we know that kids are getting at least two meals every day while they're in school we'll do the best we can to support families and we advocate for policy changes that will help support families what are the policy changes oh goodness well right now we're working very much on the universal school meals bill in the legislature that's our big push right now but you know hunger free vermont was supportive of the paid family leave bill from a couple years ago supportive of raising the minimum wage things like that that help families access more food yeah now have schools well this goes back to changes processed food okay crackers chips those things that are like unnutricious or that kids like oh I rather have a chocolate bar instead of a sandwich you know that kind of thing do you also through hunger free vermont like do maybe we do a cooking class with the school to teach kids like how to make certain things at home so they're not going hungry or teaching them how to cook or independent skills in the kitchen that kind of thing yeah we we don't do as much of that kind of work but we do it's again one of those things where we see our role very much as connecting people so we know that there are already folks doing that kind of work so if a school came to us and said that they wanted to do those kind of things yeah we would help connect them with alright so what do you need to do that do you need maybe a school wants to do a cooking class but they don't have any space they don't have like a good place for a small kitchen for all the kids we can help them write applications to the state government to say hey help us pay for this kitchen space those types of things or someone that has kitchen space to yes or we might say oh we know that the food pantry at the church over here ten minutes from your school they have a kitchen space so let's get you guys connected and talking and maybe we can work out like an after school program where the kids go right to that church to hell with church is that example but where they go right to that kitchen area and start doing those types of things yeah what is the misconceptions around nutrition and school nutrition and that kind of stuff so I think that I think that there are people don't know about or people are insecure about I think there's two big things I think one misconception is that we already have school meal programs and kids are already and the kids who are most in need are getting fed and that's just not true because you talked earlier about the kid being embarrassed that the account that their parents owe the school money for example does that still go on though without universal school meals yes so it hasn't been happening the past two years because every kid can just walk into the cafeteria get the meal and walk out no questions asked and so what this law does is it makes that permanent it extends it another year so that we don't have those kind of situations where a kid is embarrassed or feels like they can't have access to the same thing their kids have so one misconception is that the misconception is that the old way of doing the school lunch programs was working fine the kids who were most in need were getting the food they needed and everyone else can afford to pay for it and we know that that's just not true and I think another big misconception about hunger and nutrition is we hear a lot about like personal choice when it comes to hunger and nutrition like well why don't they just choose to buy healthier food why don't they just choose blah blah blah we talked about earlier in some neighborhoods there are not supermarkets and if you don't have a car what are you going to do so it's not it's not just personal choice that impacts nutrition it's about the systems that are in place and if they have access to that food in the first place and like we said earlier even if there is a neighborhood even if there is a grocery store in that neighborhood even if they do have a car and they can drive to the grocery store once they get to the grocery store the healthier food is still more expensive than the less healthy food and so if you're living paycheck to paycheck if you're on a budget you might not be able to afford that healthier food and then you have to make the choice well do I pay the rent or do I buy some healthier food and no one should be put into that position so those are I think two big misconceptions okay go ahead last question before we end any more questions Arlene they lost her okay well thank you again say you last name again please it's Teddy Wazizak Mr. Wazizak for joining us from Hungry Free from Hungry Free VT and Hungry Free Vermont because you know it's important for better nutrition for more information on Hungry Free Vermont we you can go to www. Hungry Free VT.org that website again www.HungryFreeVT.org and is there a number that people can contact you at or just a website you can just go on to the website all my contact information is right on the website okay so again www.HungryFreeVT.org this puts an end to this edition of Ableton on Air thank you to all sponsors Green Mountain Support Services and many others the Association for the Blind in Vermont and Division for the Blind in Vermont and many many many others for taking the time to support Ableton on Air I'm Lauren Seiler, see you next time major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services empowering people with disabilities community Washington County where hope and support come together media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Parkchester Times Muslim Community Report www this is the Bronx.info Associated Press Media Editors New York Parrot Online Newspaper Domestic and International Anchor FM and Spotify Partners for Ableton on Air include Yechad of New York and New England where everyone belongs the Orthodox Union the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Vermont the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications Parkchester Times www this is the Bronx.com New York Parrot Online Newspaper Muslim Community Report www.h.com and the Montpelier Bridge Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Boston, New England Chapter and the Society of Professional Journalists