Child and Adult Care Food Program

2009 Participation:

The program provided approximately 1.9 billion meals and snacks to:

  • over 3.2 million children daily in child care centers, family care homes, and after-school programs;
  • over 120,000 elderly persons in Adult Day Care;
  • Over 50,000 child care centers;
  • 140,000 family child care providers working with 880 sponsors use CACFP to provide children with high quality nutrition and learning experiences.

Resources

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) pays for nutritious meals and snacks for eligible children who are enrolled at participating:

Child Care Centers & Family Child Care Homes:
Young children attending participating family child homes, child care centers or Head Start programs can receive up to two meals and a snack that meet USDA nutritional standards. The majority of CACFP participants are preschool-aged children. Eligibility is based either on the poverty status of the area or on the income of the enrolled children.

Afterschool Programs
School-based afterschool programs providing enrichment activities for children and teenagers after school can also provide free snacks through CACFP in areas where at least 50 percent of children are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. CACFP funds also can pay for suppers for children attending afterschool programs.

Homeless Shelters
CACFP provides up to three meals a day for children age 18 and younger living in homeless shelters.

CACFP also provides meals and snacks to senior citizens attending nonresidential day care centers.

Benefits
Studies show that children in CACFP receive meals that are nutritionally superior to those served to children in child care settings without CACFP. Children in participating institutions have higher intakes of key nutrients, fewer servings of fats and sweets, than children in non-participating care. Research cites participation in CACFP as one of the major factors influencing quality care - 87 percent of the family child care homes considered to be providing quality child care participated in CACFP. CACFP also makes child care and afterschool programs more affordable for low-income parents, who rely on these programs to provide a safe and healthy place for their children. 87 percent of the family child care homes considered to provide good quality care participate in CACFP.