Apply for Summer Nutrition Champion Awards
2026 SUMMER NUTRITION CHAMPION AWARDS
We want to celebrate you!
The NCDPI School Nutrition team and the Carolina Hunger Initiative encourage all summer meals sponsors to consider applying to one of the 2026 North Carolina Summer Nutrition Champion Awards. Sponsors may be self-nominated or nominated by a third party such as a community partner. This is an opportunity for you to show your successes from summer 2026!
Submit your application before Monday, November. 30, 2026 at 5pm.
Eligibility Requirements
Sponsors are required to be in good standing with all School and/or Summer Nutrition Programs. This means the sponsor has had no major findings or program violations, has completed and implemented all corrective actions from the last compliance review, was not found seriously deficient in the past two years, and has never been terminated from the Summer Nutrition Programs.
Which Award is Right for Me?
Rising Star Award
Apply if you’re a NEW Summer Nutrition Program sponsor (1st or 2nd year) operating a CONGREGATE or NON-CONGREGATE Summer Nutrition Program. Do not apply if you have previously operated congregate sites and are only new to non-congregate. What made your program stand out? Examples include appealing, healthy menus, engaging enrichment, and participation-boosting strategies or partnerships.
Farm to Summer Best Practice Award
Apply if you implemented FARM TO SUMMER initiatives in your summer program, including serving locally grown, caught or raised foods, and conducting agricultural and nutritional education activities. Open to sponsors who operated either a CONGREGATE or NON-CONGREGATE meal site.
Superior Congregate Site Award
Apply if you have one specific open CONGREGATE SITE (not sponsor) that performed above and beyond this summer to gain and maintain participation at the site.
Superior Non-Congregate Site Award
Apply if you have one specific open NON-CONGREGATE MEALS (NCM) SITE (not sponsor) that performed above and beyond this summer to gain and maintain participation from the local community at the site.
Rural Non-Congregate Innovation Award
Apply if you served SUN Meals To-Go (RURAL NON-CONGREGATE MEALS) meals in summer 2026 and used one or more innovative concepts and marketing strategies to increase participation in non-congregate meals distributed.
Congregate Meals Innovation Award
Apply if you used a strategic plan with one or more innovative concepts and marketing strategies to increase participation in CONGREGATE meal service.
How To Apply
Review the FULL DETAILS in the PDFs below. Make sure to review both the awards summary, and the specific info for the award for which you plan to apply.
- Choose the award that best fits you and your successses. Each award overview includes a rubric that will be used to score your application. Find this information below. Review it carefully!
- Create your presentation SLIDES. These are your application! (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canva, or PDF are all OK. Use WeTransfer.com if your file is too big.) Make sure you address all of the awards criteria from the rubric in your slides.
- Label your slides and supplemental materials: “[Award Name] – [Organization Name]”.
- Attach everything to an email, and submit to carolinahungerinitiative@unc.edu with the title “2026 Summer Nutrition Champion Awards – [Your Organization Name]” in the subject line of the email.
- All nominations should be submitted no later than Monday, November 30, 2026 by 5 PM. The winners will be notified the week of December 14, 2026. Awards will be presented at SummerPalooza in January 2027.
Full Details
Click below for more info on each award: