Medical Matters Weekly Welcomes Anore Horton of Hunger Free Vermont

BENNINGTON, VT—June 1, 2021—Southwestern Vermont Health Care’s (SVHC) Medical Matters Weekly with Dr. Trey Dobson, a weekly interactive, multiplatform medical-themed talk show, will feature Anore Horton, the executive director of Hunger Free Vermont on its June 9 program. Hunger Free Vermont is a statewide advocacy, education, and technical assistance nonprofit dedicated to ending the injustice of hunger and malnutrition for all Vermonters. The show will air at 12 p.m. Horton will reflect on her organization’s initiatives toward food security and food security work happening throughout the state.

The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV). Viewers can see Medical Matters Weekly on Facebook at facebook.com/svmedicalcenter and facebook.com/CATTVBennington. 

Horton spent 7 years managing Hunger Free Vermont’s nutrition initiatives before becoming executive director. During her tenure, she has been instrumental in fighting to eliminate the root causes of hunger through statewide initiatives that expand Vermont’s participation in federal nutrition programs including 3SquaresVT, Meals on Wheels, school breakfast and lunch, summer and afterschool meals, and childcare meals, along with state-level projects that enact dignified solutions to hunger. She spearheads the organization's campaign for universal school meals, as well as key collaborations with many Vermont and national partners to protect and expand the right to food, and to ensure that equitable access to nutritious and affordable food is built into the fabric of every Vermont community. Horton received her master’s degree in teaching from the University of San Diego and her master’s in history from Princeton University.

“Prior to the pandemic, food insecurity affected one in ten Vermonters,” Horton said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an urgent and unprecedented hunger crisis in Vermont. One in three Vermonters report having experienced food insecurity during the pandemic. Lack of affordable housing, low wages, high unemployment, a decrease in the number of affordable grocery stores, and lack of public transportation were all already contributing to hunger and food insecurity in Vermont, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these inequities.”

After the program, the video will be available on area public access television stations. On CAT-TV, viewers will find the show on channel 1075 at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 1:30 p.m. Monday, 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 a.m. Friday, and 7 p.m. Saturday. GNAT-TV's Comcast channel 1074 airs the program at 8 a.m. Monday, 9 p.m. Wednesday, and 1 p.m. Saturday.

Upcoming guests include:

• 12 p.m. Wednesday, June 16: Patricia Ryan, RN, will share how she helps mend and strengthen hearts at SVMC Cardiac Rehabilitation.
• 12 p.m. Wednesday, June 23: SVMC Pediatrician Meghan Gunn, MD, will share her interest in children’s health and her thoughts about vaccinating adolescents and children for COVID-19.
• 12 p.m. Wednesday, June 30: Nicholas Weinberg, MD, Emergency Medicine physician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, will share his experiences working on the search-and-rescue teams, including at Mt. Denali in Alaska.
• 12 p.m. Wednesday, July 7: Jeffrey Parsonnet, MD, infectious disease physician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, will share his work as leader of the organization’s post-acute COVID syndrome (commonly referred to as “long haulers”) program.

Videos and podcasts are on svhealthcare.org/MedicalMatters, as well as YouTube and on many podcast-hosting platforms, respectively.

To contribute questions in advance of each week’s show, please e-mail wellness@svhealthcare.org or post to Facebook with #SVHCMedicalMattersWeekly.
 
About SVHC Medical Matters Weekly:
Medical Matters Weekly is an interactive, multiplatform guest-driven talk show hosted by Dr. Trey Dobson. It provides a behind-the-scenes perspective on health care, including topics like behavioral health, food insecurity, equitable care, and the opioid crisis. The show is produced in partnership with Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV) and is broadcast on CAT-TV, Greater Northshire Access Television, Facebook Live, YouTube, and podcast platforms. 
 
About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, healthcare system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices.
 
SVMC has earned several prominent distinctions. Most recently, SVMC received the American Hospital Association’s Rural Healthcare Leadership Award for transformational change in efforts toward healthcare reform and its fifth consecutive designation within the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program®. It ranked fourth in the nation for healthcare value by the Lown Institute Hospitals Index in 2020 and is one of Vermont’s Best Places to Work. SVMC earned an ‘A’ for hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group for two years in a row. During the pandemic, SVMC and both its skilled nursing facilities, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation in Bennington, and the Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Hoosick Falls, earned perfect scores on a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services evaluation meant to determine the ability to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and other infections.
 
Southwestern Vermont Medical Center provides exceptional care without discriminating on the basis of an individual’s age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.