The Power of the Food Program: Adult Care
Adult Day Care Provider
May 21, 2025
Protecting the Overall Health and Wellbeing of Older Adults
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) ensures nutritious meals to over 4.5 million children and adults every day. While the CACFP primarily supports child care centers, family child care homes, and afterschool programs, did you know that
Adult day care centers can receive reimbursement for serving nutritious meals and snacks that contribute to the health and wellness of adults who are 60 or older or who are physically or mentally impaired. Through this effort, the CACFP helps ensure that nearly 120,000 adults receive nutritious meals each day.
Vegas Adult Day Care is an outstanding CACFP operator that is committed to the overall health and wellbeing of the 40 older adults they serve each day. The founder of Vegas Adult Day Care, Myong Kim, began her experience with adult care as the caregiver for her own parents. After moving to Las Vegas, she was drawn to serve the senior population where she saw a need for adult care services. The organization is a family business, with her son, Christopher Kim, serving in an administrative capacity.
Most of their clients live on their own, and many of them live in senior apartment complexes, which can be very isolating. Christopher shared that one of the primary reasons their clients come to day care is to interact with friends and socialize. The staff of Vegas Adult Day Care recognize the unique situation and needs of older adults and treat them like family.
“With the adult day care, we like to go above and beyond for our clients. We know the needs that the elderly have. You know, a lot of them don’t have family members present. They’re very isolated, maybe they don’t speak English or can’t use computers very well. So, we like to be their son or their daughter and take care of their needs, beyond what the scope of an adult care really is in terms of Medicaid standards go.”
Throughout the day, Vegas Adult Day Care loves to fill their days with fun and activities. When Food For Kids, the food program sponsor of Vegas Adult Day Care, comes to visit, they witness smiles, laughter, dancing, and singing – Karaoke is one of the favorite pastimes.
As many of their clients are in care for 6 to 7 hours each day, Vegas Adult Day Care serves breakfast, lunch, and a PM snack through the CACFP. With a kitchen on-site and well-trained food service staff, Vegas Adult Day Care is able to serve great food that their clients love. With many of their clients coming from Asian descent, they also make an effort to incorporate many different Asian dishes to their menu.
“We have a kitchen here where we make good food for the clients. The clients love it. We have employees that are trained very well in food service making the food. We like to change it up and give the food that the clients love to eat. So, since our population is mainly of Asian descent, whether Chinese or Korean or Vietnamese, we like to serve the stuff that they grew up eating.”
Participating in the CACFP has helped the staff at Vegas Adult Day Care to better understand the dietary needs of their clients and ensure they are serving nutritious meals that meet those needs. The staff also put more effort into serving a variety of different foods. Christopher also called out the importance of continuous training that is required for the CACFP to refresh staff knowledge and keep on top of program requirements.
When asked if he would recommend the CACFP to other adult day care facilities, Christopher’s answer was a resounding “yes!” Not only because of the financial incentive, but also for the nutrition education and resources that help them keep their clients safe and healthy.
“Of course if there are any adult day cares that aren’t enrolled in CACFP, we would tell them that they should enroll in CACFP. I think it’s very helpful for adult day care centers to be involved in the CACFP, because we’re all serving the same type of population. We need to take care of the seniors out here that are at-risk with their health or isolation.”
Hunger is a significant issue among older adults in the United States, with 1 in 11 seniors experiencing food insecurity in 2022. Adult day care centers are perfectly positioned to mitigate food insecurity for those they serve through participation in CACFP. A study by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that nearly all meals served by adult day care centers (96%) are reimbursed at the free rate and most centers served breakfast, lunch, and snack – the maximum reimbursable through the CACFP – to ensure those in their care do not go hungry. Not on the food program? Learn how to join today!
Vegas Adult Day Care has been operating the CACFP since 2018.