Sponsor Spotlight: Katie Quinlivan with Yours For Children, Inc.
Sponsor of Family Child Care Homes
April 20, 2026
Katie Quinlivan is the Program Director at Yours For Children, Inc. (YFCI), a CACFP sponsor of family child care homes that was founded 1985. YFCI serves around 1,600 family child care homes across the State of Massachusetts, ensuring nutritious meals for over 11,000 children. Katie, herself, has been with YFCI for almost 30 years and follows in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother.
“I truly say that the CACFP runs in my veins. I was born into family child care. My mom was a family child care provider for 40 years, and she also worked part-time in the food program."
Katie started working for YFCI in her early teens and has continued growing within the organization. She learned the program from the ground up, starting part-time filing paperwork, then moving into data entry and administrative work, followed by monitoring, and continued growing in management until eventually becoming Program Director. Through her journey in the CACFP, Katie has gained a deeper understanding of the providers, the children they serve and the significant impact of the CACFP.
Katie is committed to supporting family child care providers and allowing access to the CACFP to as many providers as possible. That’s why, when a larger sponsoring organization closed in October 2025, YFCI stepped in to pick up over 400 family child care providers to ensure they maintained access to the program. Although YFCI onboarded as many providers as they were able to, some areas of Massachusetts have waitlists for family child care providers wanting to join the program. That’s why the recruitment of new sponsoring organizations is so close to Katie’s heart. As the number of sponsors across the nation continues to dwindle, Katie is devoted to ensuring the sustainability of the CACFP for generations to come.
“I think my motivation right now is the opportunity to mentor the next generation of sponsors. After decades in the field, I think it’s so essential to pass on the knowledge, experience, and perspective. The sustainability of the CACFP depends on preparing these new leaders who can carry the mission forward with the same commitment and integrity that it all started with.”
As an older generation of sponsoring organizations' leadership prepares to retire, Katie believes its essential to have a well-prepared group of future leaders ready to step in and maintain access to the CACFP for child care providers. That’s why Katie is the first to volunteer to help mentor potential new sponsoring organizations. Mentorship is something Katie believes is crucial for the success of a new sponsoring organization. She strongly recommends connecting with existing sponsoring organizations in the same state, who have a wealth of knowledge and experience that most are willing to share. She also recommends building strong relationships with the State agency to understand state-specific policies and procedures. Most importantly, she advises new sponsoring organizations to start slow and small, while they are still learning the CACFP.
“You need to accept that you’ll never know everything. I’ll be at Yours for Children for 30 years in December. I still say I learn something new every day. Rules change, meal patterns evolve, new situations come up. But a successful Sponsor stays flexible, curious, and is willing to grow with the program and within the program.”
Staff is another crucial part of being a successful sponsoring organization. In Katie’s opinion, a lot of their success is due to the dedication of her mission-driven staff. Katie sees the passion of her staff, especially in the ways they support their providers each and every day. But Katie knows that the true underlying reason for their success is the work that their providers do every day to build healthy eating habits for the children in their care.
“Our providers really deserve the credit. Day in and day out, they’re the ones that are actually reinforcing the eating habits to the children in their care. I think that their commitment to serving nutritious meals and providing positive food experiences for the children is what truly makes this program successful and exceptional. Our role is to lift those providers up and support them and make sure that they have everything that they need to continue to go above and beyond.”
YFCI does everything it can to support their providers’ success in the CACFP and uplift the work that they do. The most rewarding part of the job for Katie is seeing the impact the CACFP has on the children. The CACFP helps children build a foundation of healthy eating habits at very young ages that can have positive life-long health outcomes. This reminder of why the work that they do matters, is what continues to drive Katie in her dedication to sustaining and increasing access to the CACFP.
“I think the CACFP has always been a part of my life, it will always be a part of my life, and I think I’d like to continue that legacy.”
In Massachusetts, Katie has been with Yours For Children, Inc. for 30 years.