Introduced to Congress Today! CACFP legislation that eliminates tiering & adds an extra 10¢

Today, Representatives Landsman and Bonamici introduced legislation that speaks to the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and only CACFP! It is called the Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act. The legislation:

1. Adds an additional 10 cents per eligible meal served in CACFP.

   1. This is for ALL CACFP programs (Yes; adult care, at-risk afterschool, and emergency shelters, this means you too!)

   2. Similar to what you all experienced during the pandemic-era additional funds but would be permanent in the law (not tied to an emergency or limited by time)

2. Eliminates the tiering process for family child care homes and sponsors.

   1. All family child care providers would be paid at the same rate

   2. The rate would be equivalent to the tier I rate for all family child care providers

3. Ensures home-based child care providers can be reimbursed for meals served to their own children in their child care program

   1. Currently, providers can only claim their own children if their own income qualifies them for tier I

   2. This legislation enables providers to claim their own children for reimbursement if their children are enrolled in their child care program and served meals with other children in the care setting regardless of their income

This is an opportunity to tell your story to members of Congress (which is not considered lobbying!) to ensure they continue to hear you and your community members. It’s gotten us this far - now it’s time to ramp it up! We’ll be in touch regularly to keep you posted and ask for you to take action, but here’s where to start!

Please call your U.S. Representative (www.house.gov) and tell the staff person that answers the phone:

• Each day, more than 4.2 million children have nutritious meals and snacks through CACFP.

• Good nutrition in the first years of life is essential for early brain development, and research indicates that meals and snacks served in CACFP-participating child care programs are of higher quality than in non-CACFP programs.

• I am proud of the healthy meals I serve.

• The caregiving workforce in Early Head Start, Head Start, child care centers, family child care, and after-school programs is working tirelessly to ensure children do not go hungry and continue to have opportunities to learn and grow.

• CACFP reimbursements help me with some of the costs of providing a meal and make it so that I don’t have to ask families to pay extra for all of the healthy meals in my program.

And if you are able to express support for legislation, include:

• Please co-sponsor the Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act, introduced by Representative Landsman from Ohio and Representative Bonamici from Oregon.

• Without your support, we will see an increase in young children and even providers themselves going to bed hungry. We will also see more burdens placed on working families.

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Register now to learn more about advocacy opportunities with your CACFP community in October at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach!