The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) ensures nutritious meals to over 4.5 million children and adults every day. The CACFP is mainly operated in child care centers, family child care homes, and afterschool care programs, but did you know that emergency shelters can also serve meals through the food program?
Read More
Rhonda Kobylecky is the Food Service Director for Acelero Learning Head Start which is a multi-state sponsoring organization of 48 Head Start centers serving over 4,000 children. Hear from Rhonda!
Read More
July 19, 2024 View this post on Instagram A post shared by National CACFP Sponsors Assoc. (@nationalcacfp) Serving Child and Adult Care Food Program meals helps children and adults gain access to nutritious foods on a consistent basis. Some centers or family child care home may provide breakfast, lunch/supper, and/or snack to those in their…
Read More
A report published in the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice examined changes in nutrition and physical activity-related best practices in ECE settings in Illinois from 2019 as compared to 2022.
Read More
The lack of affordable, quality child care is a major area of concern across all demographics, family structures, and income levels in the United States. In fact, it’s the biggest challenge that parents want their elected officials to know about, as parents need child care to support their children’s physical health, emotional well-being, and development of life-long skills.
Read More
Can peanuts, tree nuts, seeds or soy nuts be served to meet the full meat/meat alternate component for a meal?
Read More
Check out these virtual events coming up this month at NCA!
Read More
The 2024 CACFP Virtual Summit is back and registration is live! Don’t miss the biggest online training event of the year!
Read More
Join us as a presenter in Dallas! We are now accepting presentation proposals for the 2025 National Child Nutrition Conference, set to take place at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas from April 14 to April 18.
Read More
Over 13 million children leave school not knowing if there is supper at home, or if their next meal won’t be until the next day when they are at school. Serving meals and snacks to children in At-Risk Afterschool and Out-of-School-Time doesn’t have to be hard or complicated.
Read More
Check out these virtual events coming up this month at NCA!
Read More
Check out these virtual events coming up this month at NCA!
Read More
The lack of affordable, quality child care is a major area of concern across all demographics, family structures, and income levels in the United States. In fact, it’s the biggest challenge that parents want their elected officials to know about, as parents need child care to support their children’s physical health, emotional well-being, and development of life-long skills.
Read More
CACFP reimbursement rates were recently released for the 2024-2025 program year. While rates increased for both centers and family child care homes, you may have noticed that centers received a larger reimbursement bump than homes. This is a result of changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which is a measure, estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the average change over time in the prices of goods and services.
Read More
The USDA has released the Reimbursement Rates for 2024-2025. Rates are effective from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
Read More
Since our last policy updated, there are new opportunities for you to advocate, in addition USDA has released two final rules, two pieces of guidance, and a data report on CACFP.
Read More
NCA surveyed its CACFP sponsoring organization and provider members to obtain feedback on their experiences with the food program. NCA analyzed information collected from the survey in the State of the Child and Adult Care Food Program report.
Read More
USDA released a memorandum that provides updated guidance on the geographic preference option to reflect changes made by the final rule.
Read More
The Child and Adult Care Food Program has new creditable foods listed on the USDA Food Buying Guide! If you are new to the FBG, this interactive tool allows for easy display, search, and navigation of food yield information. In addition, users can compare yield information, create a favorite foods list, and access tools, such as the Recipe Analysis Workbook (RAW) and the Product Formulation Statement Workbook.
Read More
The Child and Adult Care Food Program community asked for more Spanish resources to be available on the National CACFP Sponsors Association website and we heard you! Available now in Spanish are more resources to help sponsors and providers with meal pattern requirements, best practices, and so much more!
Read More
Serving meals to young people year-round benefits children, families, and care providers. To do this, many providers transition from operating the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) At-Risk Afterschool (ARAS) during the school year to the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) while school is out. For an overview of the main differences between SFSP and CACFP ARAS, see the comparison chart below.
Read More
NCA understands that the end of flexibilities will cause challenges for many CACFP sponsors and providers and we commend your continued commitment to providing nutritious meals and snacks to the children or adults in your care. In preparation for the end of the additional reimbursement, we have collected the following resources to help you successfully provide meals even if your available budget decreases.
Read More
The Exhibit A Grains Tool has a new feature that allows users to select their Program and Meal to filter the search results to only creditable grain items for their specific Program.
Read More
CDC created three new fact sheets for Early Care and Education (ECE) providers about Early Child Nutrition and Feeding. The fact sheets offer tips and best practices for supporting breastfeeding families, information about safe storage and handling of breastmilk, and strategies for introducing solid foods.
Read More
July 19, 2024 View this post on Instagram A post shared by National CACFP Sponsors Assoc. (@nationalcacfp) Serving Child and Adult Care Food Program meals helps children and adults gain access to nutritious foods on a consistent basis. Some centers or family child care home may provide breakfast, lunch/supper, and/or snack to those in their…
Read More
Can peanuts, tree nuts, seeds or soy nuts be served to meet the full meat/meat alternate component for a meal?
Read More
Who is able to write a medical statement?
Read More
What is a medical statement, and why might one be needed in the CACFP?
Read More
Can frozen fruit juice bars be credited for reimbursement in the CACFP?
Read More
What is amaranth and how is it used in the CACFP?
Read More
The Child and Adult Care Food Program has new creditable foods listed on the USDA Food Buying Guide! If you are new to the FBG, this interactive tool allows for easy display, search, and navigation of food yield information. In addition, users can compare yield information, create a favorite foods list, and access tools, such as the Recipe Analysis Workbook (RAW) and the Product Formulation Statement Workbook.
Read More
The Child and Adult Care Food Program community asked for more Spanish resources to be available on the National CACFP Sponsors Association website and we heard you! Available now in Spanish are more resources to help sponsors and providers with meal pattern requirements, best practices, and so much more!
Read More
Serving meals to young people year-round benefits children, families, and care providers. To do this, many providers transition from operating the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) At-Risk Afterschool (ARAS) during the school year to the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) while school is out. For an overview of the main differences between SFSP and CACFP ARAS, see the comparison chart below.
Read More
NCA understands that the end of flexibilities will cause challenges for many CACFP sponsors and providers and we commend your continued commitment to providing nutritious meals and snacks to the children or adults in your care. In preparation for the end of the additional reimbursement, we have collected the following resources to help you successfully provide meals even if your available budget decreases.
Read More
The Exhibit A Grains Tool has a new feature that allows users to select their Program and Meal to filter the search results to only creditable grain items for their specific Program.
Read More
CDC created three new fact sheets for Early Care and Education (ECE) providers about Early Child Nutrition and Feeding. The fact sheets offer tips and best practices for supporting breastfeeding families, information about safe storage and handling of breastmilk, and strategies for introducing solid foods.
Read More
The University of Colorado College of Nursing published their 2022 Annual Report on Achieving a State of Healthy Weight. The report determines how state regulations support obesity prevention in licensed ECE programs. It also highlights state successes and identifies opportunities for ECE regulations to improve support of obesity prevention in young children.
Read More
A study was published in October 2023 by the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health to explore federal and state policies and practices that support or discourage CACFP participation among child care centers. The report approaches: program outreach and administration, barriers that make CACFP participation challenging, and recommendations to expand access to CACFP for eligible providers.
Read More
A study was published in October 2023 by the Urban Institute to identify major gaps in the CACFP’s coverage and ability to reach children. The study specifically focused on CACFP eligibility for small home-based child care providers who are legally exempt from their state’s child care licensing requirements.
Read More
A report by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) found that while participation in afterschool supper remained steady throughout the pandemic, there has been a 23% decrease in participation between October 2021 and October 2022.
Read More
A study was published in September of 2023 to assess the extent and reasons for the operation of the CACFP’s among licensed child care centers in order to identify opportunities for expanding CACFP nutrition support. The study found that the CACFP is underutilized and that there is unequal access in certain states and regions.
Read More
A study was published in June of 2023 that found that children with child care-provided meals had lower odds of food insecurity, having poor health, or being admitted to the hospital compared to children with parent-provided meals.
Read More
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) ensures nutritious meals to over 4.5 million children and adults every day. The CACFP is mainly operated in child care centers, family child care homes, and afterschool care programs, but did you know that emergency shelters can also serve meals through the food program?
Read More
Rhonda Kobylecky is the Food Service Director for Acelero Learning Head Start which is a multi-state sponsoring organization of 48 Head Start centers serving over 4,000 children. Hear from Rhonda!
Read More
Beth Carlton is the Executive Director of Child Care Links , a sponsoring organization in Kansas that sponsors approximately 170 family child care homes and two centers that serve meals to around 1,800 children. Hear from Beth!
Read More
Hear from three outstanding CACFP sponsoring organizations about the work that they do with CACFP providers to ensure the children and adults in their care receive nutritious meals.
Read More
Kate Abernathy is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Providers Choice which is a state-wide sponsoring organization of 3,000 family child care homes and 90 centers in Minnesota. Hear from Kate!
Read More
Rache Cross is the Senior Director of CACFP at Caring People Alliance which sponsors family child care homes, child care centers, and At-Risk Afterschool sites in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Read More