The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) supports families’ food security and nutrition by reimbursing child care providers for preparing and serving healthy food to young children, primarily from low-income households. The CACFP is a federal program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is operated by the Michigan Department of Education.
The Early Childhood Investment Corporation (ECIC) partnered with PPA, 1837 Partners, and the Michigan After School Partnership on a project aiming to explore and increase CACFP participation to the benefit of Michigan child care providers and families alike. Below are presented two issue briefs resulting from PPA’s research.
- The Roundtable Brief presents major findings on the experiences of child care providers with the program. The findings were generated from six roundtable discussions with 49 child care providers. The roundtables were organized by provider type and included centers, family home, group home, out-of-school time (OST), and license-exempt relative-care providers. Each session explored the participants’ CACFP experiences on topics such as program participation, access, retention, benefits, challenges, and suggestions for improvement.
- The Interview Brief presents the findings of nine interviews with representatives from CACFP national research and advocacy groups, Michigan state agencies, and Michigan CACFP sponsoring organizations. Each interview explored participants’ knowledge of and experience with CACFP, including their perspectives around such topics as program access and retention, benefits and challenges, sponsor and state agency roles, and opportunities for improvement.
This research was supported by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. The Health Fund works to improve the health and wellness of Michigan residents and reduce the cost of health care, with a special focus on children and seniors.
