Rally for Change

Anytime you check-out at City Market, you can choose to "round up" your total to the nearest dollar. Each month, we support Feeding Chittenden and other organizations working to strengthen our community.

In March, you collectively donated $18,418.08!

$9,209.04 went to Feeding Chittenden
$7,367.23 went to Burlington School Food Project
$1,841.81 went to The Flynn Center

April's 50% Partner:

Feeding Chittenden

In 2018, CEFS embarked on a listening campaign to gather input on our future direction from our program participants, neighbors, volunteers, donors and other stakeholders. Through this campaign, we collected information on the changing needs of those we serve and our role in the broader community.

Feedback from these sessions focused on our role as a source of food, community and opportunity for those we serve.

We also heard over and over during these listening sessions that we were seen by both those we serve and those we work with as “more than a Food Shelf” and that the scope of our programs was not accurately reflected in our name.

The feedback we received through our listening sessions mirrored the experiences that we have had regularly with community members – including our guests, volunteers, supporters, etc. – who are nearly always surprised during their first visit to our organization when learning about our variety of programs, the volume of people who we serve every day and our mission of providing more than just food to people who are facing food insecurity and hunger.

While we operate the Chittenden Food Shelf as our cornerstone program, we also operate the following programs and services:

Good Food Truck: bringing meals, groceries and outreach services to local neighborhoods throughout Chittenden County
Homebound Grocery Delivery: helping older adults and people with disabilities who are homebound access our services through deliveries of groceries and prepared meals
Food Rescue: fighting food waste locally by working with local markets and farmers to save ~10,000 lbs of edible, nutritious food every month
Hot Meal Program: operating 6 days a week and providing thousands of fresh, buffet-style meals each month
Community Kitchen Academy: providing culinary job training and support to people who are un-employed through a partnership with the Vermont Foodbank
Service Coordination: providing program referrals, case work and support to our guests who need additional services.

April's 40% Partner:

Age Well

Age Well is a nonprofit organization that has served Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle counties since 1974 as a member of Vermont’s Area Agencies on Aging. For more than 40 years, Age Well has provided services and support that allow Older Adults to stay independent, and remain healthy at home, where they want to be. Age Well integrates community resources, health services and wellness programs to enhance and improve quality of life for all Older Adults in Northwestern Vermont.

Age Well reduces barriers by providing access to healthy meals, in-home care and community resources. Delivered by staff members and 1,000+ volunteers, services are designed to meet the diverse needs of clients, their families and caregivers. Age Well does not charge for services provided, but relies on donations and encourages clients to contribute if they are able to do so.

Age Well is also the largest Meals on Wheels provider in Vermont. Their mission is to provide the support and guidance that inspires our community to embrace aging with confidence. Since 1974, Age Well has delivered over 9 million meals, provided nutrition and care coordination services to over 50,000 people, and responded to over 250,000 calls through the Helpline. To learn more visit agewellvt.org or call 1-800-642-5119.

April's 10% Partner:

Cathedral Square

Cathedral Square is a nonprofit, made-in-Vermont provider of affordable, service-enriched housing for low-income older adults and people with disabilities and other unique challenges. We started in 1977, when Burlington’s Cathedral Church of St. Paul donated some of its land for the purpose of creating housing for low-income seniors, which members recognized was a huge, unmet need. The result was Cathedral Square Senior Living, our flagship building off Cherry Street across from Hotel Vermont.

We now have 26 housing communities in Chittenden and Franklin counties serving this population. Three of these communities provide “special purpose housing” to clients of the Howard Center, ANEW Place and UVM Home Health & Hospice. In addition, over the years we have provided technical assistance and support to nonprofit housing organizations throughout Vermont, helping to create more than 1,800 affordable housing units for older adults and people with special needs.

We created Vermont’s first nonprofit, fully licensed assisted-living care community, and in 2017 the state’s first residential memory-care community for very low-income Vermonters with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

We also created the nationally recognized “Support and Services at Home” (SASH) program. SASH operates in every county in Vermont and serves roughly 5,000 Medicare recipients, providing services and care coordination to help people remain living at home as they age. It has been enormously successful in keeping older adults mentally and physically well and also saving health care costs.

At Cathedral Square, we recognize that stable, affordable housing is the foundation of health, financial security, quality of life, and racial and social justice. We believe that every person, regardless of financial means, personal circumstance or stage of life, has the right to quality, stable housing and the supports they may need to live their life to the fullest in the place they call home.

Learn more about our work, including our history and how you can get involved, at CathedralSquare.org.