Reintroduction of Bills Offering Needed Updates to Child Care Food Assistance Program

Access to nutritious food is essential to children’s healthy growth and development, and child care is a prime opportunity for children to receive the nutritious meals and snacks they need throughout the day. However, with the cost of food rising significantly over the last few years, providing healthy meals and snacks to children has become increasingly difficult for many providers. Running a child care program is expensive and many providers are already barely breaking even. Some providers struggle with food insecurity themselves, and many make personal sacrifices to ensure the children in their care are fed, including dipping into their personal pantries. 

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), created in 1968, provides meals and snacks to children in participating center-based child care programs and family child care (FCC) homes at a free or reduced-price. CACFP is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) through grants to states. Child care providers receive a cash reimbursement for nutritious meals and snacks served to children, which must meet federal nutrition guidelines. CACFP also serves children residing in participating homeless shelters and after school programs. The program serves more than 4.4 million children each day. 

CACFP plays an important role in laying the foundation for healthy eating habits and battling food insecurity, as many children eat the majority of their meals while in care, and some children may not have regular access to healthy food at home. Participating child care providers are currently reimbursed for up to two meals and one snack (or one meal and two snacks) per child every day. The program also benefits parents, because knowing that their children will receive nutritious meals while at child care can save them time, money, and stress. 

Unfortunately, in its current form, CACFP is underutilized. The first nationwide study of CACFP data found that the program is not reaching nearly as many children as it could. Overall, just 36.5% of licensed child care centers participate in CACFP, ranging from 15.2% to 65.3% across states. Many providers are not familiar with the program and many choose not to participate because of the administrative burden. To increase participation in the program and ultimately support child nutrition, CACFP needs to be updated to better reflect the needs of the child care sector. 

In recent sessions, members of congress have been pushing to strengthen CACFP. This month, a set of bicameral bills aimed at improving access to nutritious meals in child care settings and making critical updates to CACFP were introduced. These bills would ensure children have healthy meals and lessen the burdens on providers and parents.

The Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act of 2025 (H.R.2859 / S.1420)

The Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act of 2025 is sponsored by Representative Greg Landsman (D-OH) and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Tina Smith (D-MN). The Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act would ensure that child care programs participating in CACFP are better able to provide nutritious meals to children by increasing reimbursement rates to these providers. Specifically, the bill calls for: 

• A 10 cent increase for all eligible meals and snacks in all CACFP-participating Head Start, child care centers, family child care (FCC) programs, at-risk after school programs, and adult care programs.
• Improved reimbursements for FCC providers specifically, by:
  • Eliminating the burdonesome two-tier reimbursement system, which currently provides different reimbursement rates to FCC participants versus center-based child care participants and Head Start/Early Head Start. Currently, for FCC providers, reimbursement rates vary depending on the level of local poverty.
  • Allowing FCC providers to be reimbursed for meals provided to their own children who are in their care, regardless of their income level.

The Early Childhood Nutrition Improvement Act of 2025 (H.R.2818 / S.1447)

The Early Childhood Nutrition Improvement Act is a bipartisan bill sponsored by Representatives Suzanne Bonamcici (D-OR) and Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) in the House and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Tina Smith (D-MN) in the Senate. It takes multiple steps to strengthen CACFP, including:

• Adding another meal to be reimbursed in CACFP for providers who are open for more than eight hours (up to three meals and one snack).
• Changing the payment policy so that FCC programs and child care centers using CACFP are reimbursed using the same formula based on “food away from home.”
• Simplifying for-profit child care centers’ eligibility reporting. 
• Calling on the Secretary of USDA to review the CACFP Serious Deficiency process to streamline and modernize the program, reduce paperwork, and improve the process of correcting incidents of noncompliance.
• Establishing an Advisory Committee on CACFP paperwork reduction.

First Five Years Fund appreciates the leadership of Representatives Bonamici, Mackenzie, and Landsman as well as Senators Blumenthal and Smith for reintroducing these bills as they would provide essential support to providers who are already operating on razor thin margins and enhance child nutrition.