Child Care Centers participating in CACFP must provide meals that meet meal pattern requirements.

Nutrition and Healthy Meals 

The first few years of a child’s life are critical years for growth and brain development. It is also a time when children begin forming eating and exercise habits that last a lifetime. Nationwide, nearly 75 percent of children from three to six years of age are in some type of child care, including 56 percent in center-based care. Child care centers and family child care homes serve an important role in helping young children develop good eating and physical activity habits.

Children in care settings may receive half or more of their daily nutritional needs while in care. Since these meals and snacks supply such a major portion of a child’s total intake, the food and the environment in which the foods are offered impact children’s health, not only today but in the future as well.

Child care providers have a major responsibility to provide healthy foods in a supportive environment. Mealtimes can be a time for learning about nutrition, hand washing, table manners, conversation and motor skills, as well as an opportunity to try new foods.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) are jointly issued and updated every five years by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Senior Services, DHSS. They are designed for policymakers and nutrition and health professionals. The aim of the DGAs is to promote health and prevent disease. The DGAs provide four overarching guidelines that encourage healthy eating patterns at each stage of life and recognize that individuals will need to make shifts in their food and beverage choices to achieve a healthy pattern.

The 2025-2030 DGAs recommend that Americans prioritize diets built on whole, nutrient-dense foods – protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and whole grains, paired with a reduction in highly processed foods, laden with refined carbohydrates, added sugars, excess sodium, unhealthy fats, and chemical additives.

The Key Recommendations call for Americans to:

•  Eat the Right Amount for You
• Prioritize Protein Foods at Every Meal
• Consume Dairy
• Eat Vegetables and Fruits Throughout the Day
• Incorporate Healthy Fats
•  Focus on Whole Grains
• Limit Highly Processed Foods, Added Sugars, and Refined Carbohydrates

More information about the 2025-2030 DGAs is available at https://cdn.realfood.gov/DGA.pdf.

Water Availability

Drinking water must be offered and available to children upon their request throughout the day, including at meal times. While water must be made available to children during meals, it is not part of the reimbursable meals and cannot be served in lieu of milk. Water can be made available to children in a variety of ways, including simply providing water to a child when it is requested. (CACFP 20-2011 Child Nutrition Reauthorization 2010: Water Availability in the Child Care and Adult Care Food Program, May 11, 2011)

Division of Responsibility

Ellyn Satter is a recognized authority on the nutrition and feeding of infants and children. In her book Child of Mine, she recommends that instead of trying to control and manage your child’s eating and weight, parents and caregivers need to think about “optimizing.” Optimizing means feeding children in the most helpful and supportive way possible by a center honoring the responsibility of providing food and supporting children to observe a “division of responsibility” in feeding.

Child care providers and parents are responsible for the what, when, and where of feeding. Children are responsible for how much and whether to eat. Fundamental to our job is trusting children to determine how much and whether to eat from what we provide. When we do our job with feeding, children do their job with eating!

As a child care provider, you are responsible for:

• Controlling what foods are offered;
• Making and presenting meals that are tasty and safe to eat;
• Insisting that children show up for meals;
• Teaching children to behave at meals;
• Regulating meal times; and
• Making meal times pleasant.

As a child care provider, you are not responsible for:

• How much a child chooses to eat;
• Whether the child decides to eat at all; or
• How the child’s body turns out.

Each child knows how much to eat and has a genetic blueprint for growth. Always provide a variety of foods, but never force or bribe a child to eat a food. Help children trust their own internal signals of hunger and satisfaction. Allow each child to determine how much to eat or whether to eat or not.

Never make a child clean their plate!

Family Style Meal Service

Family style meal service is a type of meal service that allows children to serve themselves from serving bowls and common platters of food with assistance from supervising adults as needed. Family style meal service allows children to be introduced to new foods, new tastes, and new menus while developing a positive attitude toward healthy foods, sharing in group eating situations, and developing good eating habits. Family style meal service can increase children’s acceptance of offered foods and their willingness to try new foods. This is because they will see other children choosing certain food items and feel a sense of control over choosing foods and how much to take. Family style meal service also provides an opportunity for children to practice positive social interactions and develop their motor skills.

Unlike preset meal service methods (unitized meals), family style meals afford some latitude in the initial portion of food that is served. Additional servings of each food are readily available at each table, and more can be served at any time. Serving meals family style is optional and may be used in any CACFP setting. If a center chooses to serve meals in a family style, they must comply with the following practices.

1. A sufficient amount of prepared food must be placed on each table to provide the full required portions of each of the meal components for all children at the table and to accommodate the supervising adults. Note: meals for program and non-program adults may never be claimed for reimbursement.
2. Children must be allowed to serve the meal components themselves, with the exception of fluids (such as milk and juice). During the meal, it is the responsibility of the supervising adults to actively encourage each child to serve themselves the full required portion of each meal component of the meal pattern.
3. Supervising adults who choose to serve the fluids (including milk and juice) directly to the children must serve the required minimum quantity to each child. For example, children three to five years old must be served six fluid ounces of milk at breakfast, lunch, and supper meals.
4. If the child initially refuses a component or does not take the full portion size required for their age, the supervising adult is responsible for actively encouraging the child to take a trial portion or offering a second helping of the meal component during the meal. However, it is ultimately the child’s decision on how much or if they will take a meal component. Never use acceptance or denial of food as a reward or punishment.

In line with the nutritional goals of the CACFP, family style meal service encourages a pleasant eating environment, promotes mealtime as a learning experience by allowing children to serve themselves from common platters of food (with assistance from supervising adults), and provides educational activities that are centered around food.

Even when a complete family style meal service is not possible or practical, it may be useful to offer one component or multiple components in a family style manner. Supervising adults should provide assistance to children as needed when serving food from communal platters. This practice can help young children develop motor skills and the dexterity and hand strength needed to serve food. For more information on family style meal service, including training slides, an operator handbook, and classroom posters, visit the Team Nutrition website.

Menu Planning Guidelines

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Meal Pattern Requirements, the Crediting Handbook for the CACFP, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Buying Guide (FBG) for Child Nutrition Program ensure that children participating in the CACFP are served foods that supply the nutrients they need. Center menus have a major influence on the development of children’s eating habits. It is important that menus help establish patterns for healthy eating.

Follow these guidelines when developing menus:

• Select a form to document your daily menus. The menu template is recommended; these forms list the meal components required for each meal and snack. A five and seven-day version is available at the CACFP website [NEEDS LINK] under Forms.
• Choose the type of menu format you will use; a three-to-four-week cycle menu format is recommended. A cycle menu is a set of menus that are repeated in the same order for a period of time, typically two, three, or four weeks. Cycle menus provide variety by offering different foods and/or different food combinations each day during the cycle.
• When there are substitutions from the planned menu, mark through the original menu item and enter the substitution. The original daily dated menu that notes substitutions must be kept with the monthly records and retained for three years plus the current year.
• Know the cooking abilities of the person(s) preparing the meals. Review the menu and recipes with the cook and provide training as necessary. Select or develop standardized recipes for menu items.
• Plan menu items based on the equipment available in the center’s kitchen.
• Include all meal components in at least the minimum portion sizes required for reimbursement. It is usually easiest to start by planning the main dish or entrée.
• Plan menus that keep the nutritional needs of children in focus. Be sure to include a good source of iron and Vitamins A and C.
  • Iron sources include asparagus, lima beans, sweet potatoes, squash, 100% vegetable juice, turkey, tuna, apricots, cherries, dried fruit, dried peas, eggs, meat, and green beans.
  • Vitamin A sources include apricots, cantaloupe, cherries, plums, egg yolk, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, kale, peas, and sweet potatoes.
  • Vitamin C sources include citrus fruit and juice, broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, snow pears, peppers (green and red), cantaloupe, honeydew melon, mango, papaya, kiwi, and strawberries.
• Limit high-fat and sodium meats to no more than once per week. This includes but is not limited to hot dogs, sausage, lunchmeat, and processed meats.
• Grain-based desserts do not count toward the grain requirement, except for sweet crackers, including graham crackers of all shapes and animal crackers.
• Specify the type of fruit, juice, or vegetables on your menus to ensure a variety of food is served and to document the nutritional value of the meal.
• Specify the cereal and yogurt types to ensure sugar requirements are met. Maintain documentation with the CACFP records.
• Make sure the meals look and taste good. Introduce new foods along with familiar foods that children already like.
• Include foods in different shapes: round, square, rectangular, and in different colors: yellow, orange, red, and green.
• Combine foods that have different textures: soft, crunchy, crisp, creamy, and smooth, and different tastes: sweet, sour, tart, salty, spicy, and mild.
• Consider the different ethnic and cultural food habits and preferences of children.
• Unflavored whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, or fat-free milk is required at each meal for participants who are two years of age or older. Milk served to one-year-olds must be unflavored whole milk. Serve breastmilk or iron-fortified infant formula to infants through 11 months of age. Flavored whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, or fat-free milk may be served to participants six years of age or older. Cultured buttermilk may be served if it meets the required fat standards.  Document the type of milk served on the menu. This includes listing the fat content (whole, reduced-fat (2%), low-fat/1%, fat-free/skim) and whether the milk is flavored.
• The facility may not add sugar, syrup or other forms of flavoring to unflavored milk because doing so would turn the beverage into flavored milk. Flavored milk is not allowed as part of a CACFP reimbursable meal for children one through five years old.
• Use fats and oils sparingly in food preparation and limit the use of salt and high-sodium foods.

Standardized recipes: A standardized recipe is one that has been tested several times using the same method and equipment. A standardized recipe produces consistent product quality and yields the same number of servings every time it is used, provided the same procedures, equipment, and ingredients are used. Because standardized recipes specify exact ingredient amounts, it is easier to manage food costs and storage. A link to the USDA Standardized Recipes is available on the CACFP website [NEEDS LINK].

The USDA FBG for Child Nutrition Programs is available as an interactive web-based tool, as a mobile app, and as a downloadable PDF. USDA resources help you determine the right amount and type of food to purchase for your program. These resources aid in determining the specific meal contribution each food makes towards the meal pattern requirements, as well as providing information on recipe analysis. The FBG, Web-based Interactive FBG, The FBG Mobile App, and The FBG Calculator are available online at the USDA website. The Crediting Handbook for CACFP is a companion guide to the FBG that contains additional information on creditable foods served in child care centers. Links to both resources are also available on the CACFP website [NEEDS LINK].