This Report to Congress is submitted on behalf of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Paperwork Reduction Work Group. This report examines the feasibility of reducing unnecessary or duplicative paperwork for states, sponsoring organizations, and child care homes and centers.
CACFP was created as a pilot program to support working families in 1968. It was permanently authorized in 1975 under section 17 of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act, 42 USC 1766. The program assists states through grants-in-aid and other means to initiate and maintain nonprofit food service programs for children in various forms of child care. Although CACFP is also available in adult day care centers and emergency shelters, this report focuses on paperwork requirements in traditional child care settings.
In fiscal year 2014, 780,000 children in child care homes and 3 million children in child care centers received meals through CACFP at a total meal cost of $2.72 billion. More than 890 sponsoring organizations administered CACFP in 118,000 child care homes and 39,000 sponsored centers. Another 20,000 centers chose to participate directly with the state agency.