Characteristics of Emergency Shelters Participating in the CACFP

Why did we do this study?

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a federal program that provides reimbursement to care providers for nutritious meals and snacks served to children and certain groups of adults. Emergency shelters have been eligible to participate in CACFP since July 1999, when the Homeless Child Nutrition Program was integrated into CACFP. Children and some adults with disabilities that are homeless and are temporarily residing at an emergency shelter are eligible to receive free meals through CACFP.

All CACFP participants at emergency shelters may receive up to three meals per day, but little is known about the organizations that participate in this component of CACFP or who they serve. This report describes the first national study of emergency shelters participating in CACFP. The objective of this study was to gain a general understanding of the characteristics of CACFP emergency shelters, who they serve, how CACFP fits into their operations, and their challenges with CACFP.

How did we do this study?

FNS sent a short survey to all 368 emergency shelters that participated in CACFP in fiscal year (FY) 2023. Two hundred and forty-two shelters (66%) responded to the web survey between October and December 2023.

FNS analyzed the survey data and combined it with other data sources, including public data posted at the national and state level and data from other FNS studies. State-level findings are included in Table A of this report. A more detailed description of each data set is available in Appendix B of this report.

Key Findings

Emergency shelters are a small but diverse group of providers that represent just 0.25% of CACFP participating sites. From March 2020 to September 2022, CACFP emergency shelters claimed approximately 234,000 meals per month on average. This component of CACFP can also play a role in disaster recovery—see the full report for an example of how CACFP emergency shelters were used to support families after Hurricane Harvey.

What is a CACFP emergency shelter?

• Most CACFP emergency shelters (92%) operate 365 days per year.
• Over half (62%) of CACFP emergency shelters reported that residents stay an average of 90 days or less. Four in ten (43%) indicated that there was an official limit on the number of days residents could stay at the emergency shelter. Limits may be set by the shelter or by local or state regulations.
• Most CACFP emergency shelters (80%) served fewer than 45 residents per day, but 11% served more than 90 residents per day.
• Most shelters (58%) indicated that their shelter uses a Homeless Management Information System.
• A little more than a quarter (28%) of shelters indicated that they were affiliated with a national non-profit organization, such as Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army, or the YMCA.
• Less than half (46%) of CACFP emergency shelters also provide child care.
• Most CACFP emergency shelters provide three or more of the following non-meal services to their residents: case management (95%), clothing assistance (93%), mental health services (60%), substance abuse services (38%), legal services (33%), or medical services (33%).

What populations do CACFP emergency shelters serve?

• One-fifth of shelters (21%) only serve children.
• About half the population served at shelters are adults whose meals may not be eligible for reimbursement under CACFP.
  • Most shelters (79%) serve meals to adults over age 18, but only 23% of shelters claim CACFP meals for adults with disabilities.
  • Over a quarter of CACFP emergency shelters (28%) also serve meals to non-residents whose meals cannot be reimbursed through CACFP.
• Most CACFP emergency shelters (77%) specialize in working with one or more of the following populations: victims of abuse (55%), families (45%), migrants (17%), or youth (15%).

How does CACFP fit into emergency shelters' operations?

• Most shelters (72%) claimed three meals per day during FY 2022.
• Most CACFP emergency shelters (73%) only participate in CACFP’s emergency shelter component. The remainder also participate in CACFP as child care centers (19%), outside school hours care centers (12%), and/or Head Start programs (4%). About 9% also participate in the CACFP At-Risk Afterschool program.
• One hundred and forty-two shelters provided reasons for participating in CACFP.
  • More than half of them (59%) said that the program was an important source of funding.
  • Nearly half (44%) said that the program enabled them to provide meal services to their residents. Many said that it was also important to them that the meals were healthy.
  • Thirteen shelters (9%) said that CACFP training and guidance played an important role in educating shelter staff and organizing meal services.
• Most CACFP emergency shelters (74%) receive funding from public and private funding sources. Just over half (51%) receive public funding from local, state, and federal sources other than CACFP.

What are the challenges that emergency shelters experience with CACFP?

• Most CACFP emergency shelters (63%) did not describe any challenges with the program.
• Among those that described challenges, administrative burden was the most cited challenge for emergency shelters. Specific causes of administrative burden included: a) navigating application and meal claiming systems that are designed for child care centers, b) planning, tracking, and claiming meal services for a population that changes frequently, and c) keeping participant information private while meeting CACFP monitoring requirements.
• Several shelters expressed difficulty balancing their mission to support their clients’ decision-making power while also meeting the meal pattern requirement. This was more common among shelters that specialize in working with victims of abuse and/or with families. Emergency shelters are the only CACFP providers that may interact directly with parents or guardians during a meal service, which can be challenging if parents’ or guardians’ preferences for feeding their children do not align with the meal pattern.
• Training was a challenge for some shelters. Respondents suggested making CACFP training available year-round to accommodate high staff turnover rates at shelters and advocated for training materials specific to the emergency shelter component of CACFP. Popular topics for additional training included: nutrition label reading, food purchasing and meal planning, using reporting tools, meal pattern substitutions, and the rules around claiming meals for adults with disabilities.