MOSES LAKE — The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin has brought home yet another prize, having received the Turnip the Beet! For 2024. 

“This is one I’ve been working toward for the last three years since I started, so I was really excited,” said the club’s Operations Director Cecily Hendricks. “(We’ve been) revamping our food program and it’s taken some time but I feel like we’re finally there.” 

The Turnip the Beets! Awards spotlight summer meal program sponsors who go above and beyond in offering well-balanced, appetizing, and culturally inclusive meals that support the health and growth of children while school is out, according to an announcement from the Boys & Girls Clubs. It’s awarded every year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. It comes at gold, silver and bronze levels; the Boys & Girls Clubs received the silver award. Only two other organizations in Washington received Turnip the Beet! Awards, according to the FNS website, the Seattle-based Hunger Intervention Project received a gold award and Metro Parks Tacoma won silver. 

"Receiving the Turnip the Beet! Award places our Clubs in elite company,"  Resource Development Director Anastasia Carpenter wrote in the club’s announcement. “But more importantly, it highlights the essential role that summer meals play in combating food insecurity and ensuring our kids return to school ready to learn.” 

Boys & Girls Clubs has taken the lead in providing free meals for children in Moses Lake this year, Hendricks said.  

“When we found out there wasn't going to be summer school this year, we realized there would be not a lot of food resources for kids,” she said. “So … instead of operating at three sites around town, we're running six this year. We’ve served almost 1,800 (breakfasts and lunches) in 14 days. That was just the first two weeks of July. Seeing the need and us being able to step up and fill that gap is something I'm very proud of, because we know these kids aren't going to have food (otherwise), if not us, who?” 

Along with increased demand, Boys & Girls Clubs has made all of its meals for the last two years, using the small kitchen at the McGraw Clubhouse. 

“It’s been a massive undertaking,” Hendricks said. “Instead of vending with the school district or getting shelf-stable snacks, we’ve been making everything fresh in-house. We have such a small kitchen here – it’s like the size of my kitchen at home, maybe a little bigger – but my staff have just done an incredible job at making it work.” 

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin expanded a couple of years ago into Cle Elum and Kittitas, but those clubs partner with an Ellensburg food bank to provide summer meals and aren’t part of the Moses Lake program, Hendricks explained. 

The Turnip the Beet! Award is a significant encouragement to the club’s staff, Hendricks said. 

“It's been a hard year for us,” she said. “With all the federal and local funding cuts we went through last year … it's really been a roller coaster. So these awards really keep us going and remind us why we're here and make all the bad days worth it.”