Child and Adult Care Food Program
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a federally funded program that provides meal reimbursement to child care centers, adult day care centers, emergency shelters and child care homes for serving nutritious meals. The objectives of CACFP are to:
- Improve the diets of children by providing nutritious meals.
- Help children develop good eating habits that will last through the years.
- Help adults maintain good diets by providing nutritious meals.
This Program serves:
- Children age 0 through 12 years in child care centers.
- Children through age 18 in at risk after school programs and emergency shelters.
- Children of migrant workers, through age 15.
- Physically and mentally handicapped persons receiving care in a center or home where most children are 18 years old and younger.
- Elderly or impaired adults in non-residential day care settings.
The funds provided for this Program are from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Program is operated in Iowa through the Bureau of Nutrition Programs and School Transportation in the Department of Education.
Polk County Community, Family & Youth Services is one of 23 sponsors contracting with the Bureau of Nutrition Programs and School Transportation in the Department of Education.
What Polk County CACFP does:
- Polk County works with in-home day care providers that are registered with the state. Meal reimbursement is made to day care providers that serve nutritious breakfasts, snacks, lunches or dinners to children in their care. The foods served must be from an approved list of eligible foods.
- Polk County’s CACFP home monitors visit each day care home 3 times a year to review records and provide technical assistance. All of these visits are unannounced.
- Record keeping can now be done on the Minute Menu HX website. You can take a look at: http://www.minutemenu.com/.
For more information call 515.286.2136.
Click here to view our Child and Adult Care Food Program Brochure.