Sponsor Spotlight: Leah Penna with FP Assistance
Sponsor of Unaffiliated Centers and At-Risk Afterschool
October 10, 2024
Leah Penna is the President and Founder of FP Assistance, a sponsor of unaffiliated centers and afterschool sites across the state of Texas. Leah began her career working for a corporation of child care centers that became an affiliated sponsor of the CACFP. When she learned about the potential to be an unaffiliated sponsor, she founded FP Assistance in 1995, from her own home in Highlands Ranch, Colorado to help independent mom and pop centers get on the food program. A few years later, Leah and her family moved FP Assistance to Forney, TX solely to focus on Texas sites. Twenty-nine years later, FP Assistance has grown to employ 67 staff members and to sponsor 600 child care centers and 150 afterschool sites across the entire State of Texas – from El Paso, to Texarkana and Lubbock to Harlingen. As a result of their sponsorship, over 70,000 children are receiving meals through the CACFP.
When asked what makes FP Assistance a successful sponsoring organization, Leah said its hands-down their commitment to customer service. FP Assistance has a department of 14 people dedicated to customer service. Each staff member is assigned a group of centers that they are dedicated to and are constantly checking in on and providing technical assistance. The goal of FP Assistance is to make the CACFP as easy as possible for providers, while still maintaining program integrity. Leah recalls one of her mentors once telling her, “Our job is to make really good people not make really bad choices,” and that quote has stuck with her all these years and drives FP Assistance’s approach with their providers. In fact, their customer service representatives are called “Site Advocates” because they are there to fight for the sites and help them be as successful as possible.
“When I talk to people about FP Assistance, the thing that I highlight the most is our customer service. Our goal is to make the program as easy as possible for our centers, while maintaining program integrity. There are so many rules that are already on the books, we don’t want to add to it. We’re there of course to keep them in compliance but we’re also there to answer questions, to do technical assistance, and sometimes just to be a shoulder to cry on when they just need somebody to hear a problem.”
Their commitment to helping providers participate in the CACFP is largely driven by the benefits they see for both the providers and the children they serve. FP recognizes that the CACFP helps to fight two major issues at the same time: hunger and obesity. The CACFP is not only providing food, but it’s providing healthy food in portions that are appropriate for each child. Children are learning what a balanced plate should look like, rather than eating portions that are too big for them or eating foods that don’t provide the proper nutrients.
“The program is such a beautiful thing because it’s taking those kids who are in the low-income community, for no fault of their own, and giving them the ability to be in a child care center that, because of the food program, has higher quality care. They can have equal opportunity at a child care center that maybe can’t charge as much, but gets more money infused through the food program. And then of course the education that they’re getting and the parent handouts that the program provides.”
The CACFP also contributes to the quality of care for child care centers in low-income communities, where programs aren’t able to charge as much for care and where children are really in need of nutritious meals. Leah also shared a story that she believes highlights the importance of the CACFP for child care providers.
“I was just talking to a lady last week who was on our sponsorship several years ago and she said, ‘I remember back when I first got on the food program, it was the one thing that kept me from having to shut my doors.’ And she was able to stay open and keep feeding those kids for a long time. She was so excited about the food program because those funds that came in to help her with her food costs, helped her to be able to use her other funds for salaries and things to keep her center afloat.”
FP Assistance is continuously looking for ways to support their providers in any way they can. One way they have been going above and beyond their work as sponsor of the CACFP is through The Garden Project. The goal of The Garden Project is to get a raised garden bed into every site they sponsor. So far, they’ve already installed garden beds at 50 of their sites. FP Assistance also supports their community by being active in advocating for the CACFP and the needs of their providers – having previously engaged elected officials and consistently spreading the word about CACFP policies and advocacy efforts.
Leah’s motivation to continue working to support the CACFP is similar to the reason she became a sponsor in the first place: to make sure all providers have access to the program to support their businesses and to make sure children do not go hungry.
In Texas, Leah has been President and Founder of FP Assistance since 1995.