Standards of Excellence

The Afterschool and Summer Nutrition Programs are federal entitlement programs that provide money to organizations so they can provide nutritious meals and snacks to low-income children after school and during the summer months. When sites serve quality, kid-friendly food, it attracts children to the program and makes them more likely to consistently participate.

To identify and promote quality afterschool and summer nutrition sites, FRAC has created the following documents:

• Afterschool Nutrition Standards of Excellence [pdf]
• How to Implement Summer Food Standards of Excellence in Your Community [pdf]
• Summer Foods Standards of Excellence Chart (pdf) (compares Gold, Silver and Bronze program designation criteria)
• Summer Food Model Menus (pdf)

The primary goal of evaluating summer and afterschool nutrition sites and holding them to high standards is to increase the quality of food served and the site environment so that participation increases and more hungry children receive healthy and nutritious meals and snacks after school and during the summer months.  

We encourage you to use the afterschool and summer nutrition criteria to evaluate sites in your area for any of the following:

• Evaluate what is working and not working at afterschool and summer nutrition sites in your area;
• Distribute the checklist to site coordinators so they can perform a self-evaluation of their site;
• Conduct city or county-wide evaluations of the Afterschool and Summer Nutrition Programs;
• Determine high-quality sites and recognize them for their work;
• Identify what areas need to be improved the following year and encourage sites to reach the next level of program excellence.