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Fort Worth Report: Best Place for Working Parents launches National Innovator Awards program

Best Place for Working Parents has launched its National Innovator Awards Program.

During the grand opening of the Tyson Foods Learning Center in Humboldt, Tennessee, Tyson Foods was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Best Place for Working Parents® National Innovator Award: Onsite Child Care. This distinguished recognition celebrates Tyson Foods’ exceptional dedication to fostering a supportive environment for working parents and their families by offering the convenience of a high-quality onsite child care facility at their Humboldt, Tennessee manufacturing plant. This high-quality center and its innovative and collaborative funding structure is enabling Tyson Foods’ local working parents to thrive, while also solving a key workforce sustainability issue for Tyson Foods’ business – a win-win solution proving that family-friendly is business-friendly.

The launch of this inaugural award signifies a significant milestone for The Best Place for Working Parents. With this program, they aim to honor exceptional companies that provide exemplary support to their working parents, fostering both business growth and community development. The organization plans to continue their recognition of outstanding companies through the National Innovator award at their annual Best Place for Working Parents National Summit.

The selection of Tyson Foods as the inaugural Best Place for Working Parents National Innovator Award honoree reflects the company’s exemplary implementation of best practices in this area, setting them apart as a model for other organizations to follow. Additionally, the introduction of an onsite child care center for their employees in the processing plant makes Tyson Foods one of the few companies in the nation to offer this unique benefit to shift workers, which is among the many commendable reasons Tyson Foods was honored with this award.

“Launching our National Innovator Awards Program with Tyson Foods as the inaugural recipient is a meaningful moment for The Best Place for Working Parents team as we continue to build our growing network of family-friendly businesses across the country,” said Sadie Funk, national director of The Best Place for Working Parents. “Tyson Foods’ onsite child care program exemplifies ‘best-in-class’ when it comes to innovative family-friendly benefits that attract and retain top talent. We hope their example will inspire more companies to go beyond the traditional support for working parents in their industry, creating more exceptional workplaces for parents and meaningful ROI to the businesses that implement them.”

“The core of the Tyson Foods culture is valuing our team members and their families,” said Johanna Söderström, executive vice president and chief people officer at Tyson Foods. “We listened to the needs of our team members and recognized this as an area where we could help.”

Key elements of Tyson Foods’ new onsite child care program include a dedicated child care facility operated during non-commercial hours with a focus on child development. The program, managed by national child care leader KinderCare, will emphasize early academics, physical activity, and social-emotional learning. This exceptional initiative is a result of a successful public-private partnership, with local government agencies generously donating land for the facility and the State of Tennessee providing financial assistance through an equipment grant and tuition subsidies for parents.

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