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Turnip the Beet! High Quality Summer Meals Award Program

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Best Practices
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boy eating an apple

The Turnip the Beet Award recognizes outstanding summer meal program sponsors across the nation who work hard to offer high quality meals to children that are appetizing, appealing, and nutritious during the summer months.

Summer meals are critical in the lives of millions of our nation’s youth, whose risk for food insecurity increases during the summer months when they no longer have access to the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program. Summer meal programs, including the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) and the Seamless Summer Option (SSO) within the NSLP, present the opportunity to help alleviate summertime food insecurity and positively impact children’s growth and development by offering nutritious meals and encouraging children to develop healthy habits at a young age. High quality summer meals provide daily energy, and help make sure children are healthy and ready to learn when they return to school in the fall. The Turnip the Beet Award was created to showcase sponsors who are going above and beyond to ensure that children in their care are receiving high-quality meals that are both nutritious and appetizing.

Award Overview

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FNS recognized 140 summer meal sponsors with Turnip the Beet awards for excellence in program year 2023:
55 sponsors qualified for a gold award; 67 qualified for a silver award; and 18 qualified for a bronze award.

Resources for Serving High Quality Meals

beetFNS has an abundance of resources available to sponsors to help make summer meals more appetizing, appealing, and nutritious:

Page updated: March 15, 2024