My Food Program supports improvements to the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program. There are some intriguing ideas in the Access to Healthy Foods for Young Children Act of 2019, introduced by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA). This bill utilizes the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) to improve access to healthy, nutritious food […]
Do you need to train staff on the CACFP Meal Pattern? With all of the rules and changing regulations, it can be a bit overwhelming. Trying to gather all of the information and put it together in a clear, visual form can take a lot of staff time and effort. Luckily for you, these training […]
If you’ve seen the recent software comparison chart from the National CACFP Sponsors Association, you may have noticed that My Food Program doesn’t have a provider payment system. Did we forget to build that feature? Just run out of development resources? NOPE! We did that on purpose. We will give you three excellent reasons to […]
Scheduling facility review visits can be tough for sponsors! This blog post will break down the requirements and help you understand the rules. 7 CFR 226.16(d)(4) has the information about the frequency and type of facility reviews. When you sign up to sponsor a new site, you must make a visit within the first four […]
The USDA Food Buying Guide is like an instruction manual for building a creditable CACFP meal. It tells you exactly how much you need of exact food items to ensure that you purchase and prepare enough food. It used to be that every CACFP sponsor had a giant binder with the Food Buying Guide in […]
When serving meals in afterschool programs or adult day care centers on the CACFP or at any SFSP summer feeding site, you may use a type of meal service called Offer Versus Serve (OVS). To offer means that the participant gets the option to select from the available choices and decline others. To serve means […]
Exciting news! The USDA has issued a new handbook, “Feeding Infants in the Child and Adult Care Food Program”. This handbook was last updated in 2001 so it was ready for a refresh! The new handbook is double the size of the old version, up to 200 pages. It’s packed with information about the updated […]
Starting October 1, 2019 You need to measure grain amounts in “ounce equivalents” instead of “servings”. The USDA is changing the way CACFP sites need to measure grain amounts so that the CACFP and the National School Lunch Program are all using the same method. The amount of grain is only slightly different: Before […]
Estimating the amount of food to buy can be a difficult task. Here are a few tips to make it easier: Always plan your portions using the CACFP minimum portion size requirements. This ensures that every child gets enough food to meet their developmental needs. If you prepare your own meals, be sure to use […]
With all the recordkeeping requirements for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), it can be really easy to make a mistake that could take substantial time to correct and could have real financial implications. Here are the best practices we have identified for minimizing confusion and maximizing time with the CACFP. “Only […]