CACFP - CHILD CARE FOOD PROGRAM
Child and Adult Care Food Program Information
CACFP
By Vanessa Rasmussen, © 2006-2010, All rights reserved.
The
goal of the Childcare food Program is to improve the health and nutrition
of the children while promoting the development of good eating habits and
nutrition education.
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
is a Federal program that provides healthy meals and snacks to children and
adults receiving daycare. CACFP provides nutritious meals to 2.9 million children
and 86,000 adults who receive day care outside of their home. Licensed or
approved non-residential, public or private non-profit child care centers;
Head Start centers; settlement houses; and neighborhood centers may serve
meals and snacks to infants and children through CACFP. For-profit child care
centers may also participate if they meet certain criteria for serving low-income
children. CACFP reaches even further to provide meals to children residing
in homeless shelters, and snacks and suppers to youths participating in eligible
after school care programs.
CACFP reimburses participating providers for
their meal costs and provides them with USDA commodity food and nutrition
education materials. Reimbursement for centers is computed by claiming percentages,
blended per meal rates, or actual meal count by type (breakfast, lunch, supper,
or supplement) and eligibility category (free, reduced price, and paid). Institutions
must submit accurate monthly claims for reimbursement to their administering
agencies.
Children age 12 and younger are eligible to
receive up to two meals and one snack, each day, at a day care home or center,
through CACFP. After school care snacks are available to children through
age 18. Providers in the CACFP must serve meals that meet federal guidelines,
and must offer free or reduced-price meals to eligible people.
You can call your local Cooperative Extension
office to find out about the free and low cost programs and booklets available
on childhood nutrition. Cooperative Extension is listed under state or county
government in your telephone directory. Also, call your local CCAFP sponsors
to get more information on the program and what is offered.
Besides CACFP, there are the following food
programs designed for children in schools and childcare institutions:
- The National School Lunch Program
(NSLP) which is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and
nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides
nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school
day.
- The School Breakfast Program (SBP)
provides cash assistance to States to operate nonprofit breakfast programs
in schools and residential childcare institutions.
- The Special Milk Program (SMP) provides
milk to children in schools and childcare institutions who do not participate
in other Federal meal service programs. The program reimburses schools for
the milk they serve.
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