Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)

It isn’t only schools that have hungry people to feed. Care programs during the day, outside of school hours, also need to offer meals to both children and adults. The Child and Adult Care Food Program is a federal program that provides reimbursements for nutritious meals and snacks to:

• Eligible children enrolled for care at participating licensed childcare centers and licensed day care homes
• Children and youth in afterschool care programs
• Children residing in emergency shelters
• Adults living with a disability and enrolled in day care facilities
• Adults over the age of 60

CACFP is authorized at section 17 of the National School Lunch Act (42 USC 1766). Program regulations are issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under 7 CFR part 226.

USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) administers CACFP through grants to states, most often—as in Alabama—by the state educational agency.

Independent centers and Sponsoring organizations enter into agreements with their administering state agencies to assume administrative and financial responsibility for CACFP operations.