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Using the Child and Adult Care Food Program as a Substantial Resource for Supporting Quality Family Child Care

The Child and Adult Care Food Program is a key source of financial support for preschool child care in both family child care homes and child care centers. This federal entitlement program provides reimbursement for food and for meal preparation costs, ongoing training in the nutritional needs of children and food safety, and onsite technical assistance in meeting the program's strong nutritional requirements (a minimum of three home visits each year).

While several hundred thousand family childcare homes around the country use the Child and Adult Care Food Program, many hundreds of thousands of others do not, including many of the family child care homes supported by the Child Care and Development Block Grant (also known as the Child Care and Development Fund) and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families child care funds. The Child and Adult Care Food Program not only assures good nutrition for children in care. Its reimbursements for meals and a snack -- three dollars per day for each child or as much as $4,500 a year for the average family child care home serving six children -- can make a significant contribution to the overall resources provided for care. The Child and Adult Care Food Program funds can help to sustain the child care provider, allow for more stable caregiving; improve the quality of food given to children in care; and allow the Child Care and Development Funds to go for better services or equipment.

State Child Care Administrators and State Child and Adult Care Food Program agency staff can work in partnership to enhance child care quality through co-ordination of outreach and quality improvement efforts. Child and Adult Care Food Program outreach should be an integral part of the public child care subsidy system. Agencies in a number of states have conducted successful joint efforts that included information about Child and Adult Care Food Program as part of the registration and distribution systems for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families child care funds.

State Child and Adult Care Food Program agency staff and State Child Care Administrators also have successfully coordinated outreach efforts with the child care subsidy system using Child Care and Development Block Grant quality funds to increase access to quality care through Child and Adult Care Food Program. One successful effort used the Child Care and Development Block Grant quality improvement funds, in a partnership between Resource and Referral organizations and CACFP sponsoring organizations to bring "underground" family child care homes into the licensing system and participation in the food program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Child and Adult Care Food Program expansion funds, a largely untapped resource, could be used in conjunction with the Child Care and Development Block Grant quality improvement funds, for similar efforts in other states. (U.S. Department of Agriculture Child and Adult Care Food Program expansion funds can be used by sponsoring organizations for conducting Child and Adult Care Food Program outreach to family child care providers in low-income and rural areas.)

To find out who to contact in your state, visit FRAC's list of State Child and Adult Care Food Program Agency contacts. For more information on this important program, contact Geri Henchy at ghenchy@frac.org.