(FRANKFORT, Ky.) -- Four Kentucky organizations that sponsor summer food programs for children and community members are recipients of 2004 Summer Sunshine Southeast Region Awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The four and their winning categories are:
- Breckinridge Health Inc., Hardinsburg: Community and Faith-Based Organizations, presented to groups that coordinated efforts to eliminate obstacles to the participation of faith-based organizations and the activities these community groups exhibited to expand the services of the program.
- Bullitt County Board of Education, Shepherdsville: Service to Special Populations, presented to groups that targeted, increased access and better served special populations (children of migrant workers; American Indian or Alaska Native children; children from other minority groups; children in rural areas; at-risk children; and children with special needs).
- Employment Solutions, Lexington: Partnering With Other Organizations or Groups, presented to groups that linked their outreach efforts, program operations, and/or activities with other groups to form a coalition to support serving low-income children in Summer Food Service Programs.
- God's Pantry Kids Café Program, Lexington: Successful Program Expansion, presented to groups that have substantially increased summer food service to children in the community by developing creative strategies to promote and expand participation or through access under the 14 State Pilot Project or the Seamless Summer Feeding Waiver.
The 2004 awards also included a fifth category -- Programs that Emphasize Improved Nutrition and Physical Activities -- for which no Kentucky organizations submitted applications.
The USDA created the Summer Sunshine Awards to recognize the extraordinary efforts and the creative and successful strategies program operators and other groups contribute to the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP).
Seven other Kentucky SFSPs were nominated and submitted award applications, but were not selected: Clay County Old Timers; Harlan County Community Action Agency; Leslie, Knott, Letcher, Perry (LKLP) Community Action Council, Inc.; Louisville Metro Community Action Partnership; Maysville Housing Authority; Pulaski County Board of Education; and Webster County Board of Education. The Maysville Housing Authority won a national Summer Sunshine Award in 2002 and a Southeast Region award in 2003. Community Action of Southern Kentucky in Bowling Green and Employment Solutions in Lexington won regional awards in 2003.
The Summer Food Service Program provides nutritious meals to children without regard to race, color, national origin, age (within statutory limits), sex or handicap, during extended school vacation periods. In most areas, the program operates from May until September. Meals and snacks are served to children in such places as schools, playgrounds and parks.
Public or private nonprofit schools, units of local, municipal, county or state government, and public or private nonprofit agencies may qualify as sponsors of the Summer Food Service Program. Residential summer camps whose enrollment includes needy children may also act as program sponsors.
Qualified sponsors are reimbursed for program operating and administrative expenses up to the current rates of reimbursement. To be eligible, sponsors must provide continuing service to the community, serve meals on a regular schedule to children or provide meals as a part of an organized program for enrolled children at camps and show they are financially and administratively capable of operating the program.
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