Brief The Child and Adult Care Food Program and Home-Based Child Care Providers
Subtitle
Expanding Participation
Gina Adams, Fernando Hernandez-Lepe
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This brief provides an overview of opportunities, challenges, and steps to expand the participation of home-based child care (HBCC) providers in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which is a federal child nutrition program that helps pay for meals provided in child care settings. Based on expert interviews and a review of the literature, we first provide background on HBCC providers and CACFP to set the context and then summarize findings about the barriers these providers face to participating in CACFP. We conclude with a discussion of recommendations, possible impacts of improving participation, and areas where we need more information. This information is particularly relevant for policymakers given the increased focus on HBCC during the pandemic, the pending reauthorization of the federal child nutrition programs (including CACFP), and the recent passage of major new child care investments as part of the pandemic relief packages.

Research Areas Families Social safety net Children and youth
Tags Hunger and food assistance Child care Kids in context
Policy Centers Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population
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