Sponsor Spotlight: Carrie Murphy of Provider’s Network, Inc.

Carrie was first introduced to the CACFP when she was operating her own family childcare home. In 2001 after having her first child, Carrie struggled to find childcare in her area and decided to leave her career as a paralegal and became licensed as a family home provider. During her 13 years as a provider, Carrie got involved with PNI as a board member representing the family home perspective and held the role of Board President for seven years. When the founder of PNI retired, Carrie accepted the position of Executive Director.

Coming from her own experience as a family home provider, Carrie understands the daily challenges faced by the providers that PNI sponsors. In fact, every PNI staff member comes from a childcare background which gives them a keen ability to meet providers where they are and help support their needs.

 

“I know some providers get nervous when we come for a visit, and they think we’re there to find something wrong. We want to make sure they’re compliant, of course, but we’re also there to support them. We know that they’re going to have 2 or 3 crying kiddos around them when we come for a visit. Some of the providers get anxious about that, so we try to calm their nerves. Our entire staff have a childcare background, so we can all work around kids sitting on our lap and entering information for our review at the same time. We genuinely feel that we can relate to them and understand what they’re going through.”

 

Carrie credits the success of their sponsorship to the stability and dedication of her team. All of her staff have been with PNI since before Carrie was Executive Director. The PNI team works hard to make sure their providers feel supported and help them overcome any challenges or obstacles they may face. PNI as an organization aims to ensure that their providers know that the entire PNI team is there to support them and not just the staff advisor assigned to them.

Not only is PNI committed to providing high-quality customer service for their providers, but one of their main goals is to promote the CACFP throughout Nebraska. PNI attends conferences and workshops, posts on social media and shares providers stories to help spread awareness of the CACFP. Carrie recognizes that there are still many individuals who don’t know how important the CACFP is for childcare providers.

 

“I feel like I’m shouting it all the time, but there’s still a lot of community members and businesses who don’t know what CACFP means and how instrumental it is to their own day care providers, to their employees’ day care providers. It really does impact every community member in one way or another – whether it’s their own children, their neighbors' children or their grandchildren.”

 

The team at PNI is constantly advocating for the CACFP, and for program improvements to ease the burden on providers. Carrie is also working to expand her capacity for advocacy by participating in the Nebraska Early Childhood Policy Leadership Academy. She recently joined the board of the National CACFP Association where her input can have a broader impact beyond Nebraska. Having these two things come together at the same time has created an exciting opportunity for Carrie to continue her advocacy.

Clearly Carrie and her team have a passion for working in the CACFP and supporting the providers they sponsor. Carrie shared that her motivation to continue working in the CACFP space is to help providers receive the reimbursement that is critical to their business as well as to provide the nutrition education they need to serve healthy meals.