The first Tuesday in November is coming up quickly. But, as usual when there is no presidential contest to draw the nation’s attention, turnout is expected to be low, with elections that will determine which party controls the House and the Senate riding on the decisions of about 35 percent of eligible voters.

Does it matter, really?

Consider just one low profile, no-glamour program that is up for reauthorization in the next Congress: the Child and Adult Care Food Program, or CACFP.

Kids at family child care centers probably aren’t talking about who’ll be elected to Congress as they drink their orange juice and eat their apple spice muffins. But that healthy snack is made possible by CACFP, and the members of Congress elected on November 5 will help determine how the program (and other child nutrition programs) continues. How much money will be made available to help child care providers offer healthy snacks, and what rules will the providers need to follow to access the money, and the nutrition advice that comes with it?

Did You Know?

Nearly 1 in 6 Americans is served by 1 or more of the 15 domestic food assistance programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) at some point during the year. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/fanrr28-1/fanrr28-1.pdf

Healthy food, good advice
CACFP began in 1968 as a three-year pilot to provide children with meals when school was out of session. It quickly became the fastest-growing food program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. CACFP is up for reauthorization in 2003, and this presents a great opportunity to strengthen this program.

Annual expenditures have grown from $1.3 million in 1969 to $1.7 billion in 2001. Licensed public and nonprofit child care centers, family and group child care homes for preschool children, after school programs for school age children, and adult day care centers that serve chronically impaired adults or people over the age of 60 are eligible to receive federal funds for meals and snacks.

CACFP has always had two major components for children—a child care food program and a summer food service program. More recently, the Older American Act of 1987 authorized the participation of eligible adult day care centers. During the mid-1990s, pilot programs in seven states were authorized to provide dinner meals to children through the age of 18 in after school programs serving neighborhoods with high levels of child poverty.

Since 1996, when new regulations were added to the program as part of the welfare reform legislation, the number of family day care homes using CACFP has dropped by 14 percent, after years of steady growth. Geraldine Henchy, senior policy analyst for the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), says the changes, which include a complicated means test, discourage participation. “They cut the amounts of money by more than half that family care providers get, making the program harder to get on and less valuable for providers to bother with.”

Did You Know?

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is the nation’s fourth largest food assistance program in terms of expenditures. CACFP is also one of the fastest growing programs, with expenditures more than doubling since fiscal 1990. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/fanrr28-1/fanrr28-1.pdf

It’s not that the need is gone, says Henchy. “Participation in CACFP helps improve the quality of child care because it comes with three site visits, training and education in nutrition and support for family care providers.” Congress could choose to make the regulations less burdensome for small family day care providers, as part of the 2003 reauthorization.

Millions of children eating better
Organizations like FRAC, America’s Second Harvest and others say that child nutrition programs like this one are critical because they promote good nutrition and quality child care, both of which are essential if children are to develop fully and enter school ready to learn. According to FRAC, the Child and Adult Care Food Program serves more than 2.6 million children every working day.

Gearline Duplessis of California opened her family child care program in 1990. “I am a nutrition resource to [the] parents of the children in my care because of the partnership I have with the Child Care Food Program,” says Duplessis. “The knowledge of the nutritionists, the support and the monthly information that I receive and pass on to the families I serve, has proven an asset to my program.”

Did You Know?

In 2000, 18 percent of children lived in households reporting some level of food insecurity. Children in families below the poverty line were nearly three times more likely to experience food insecurity and hunger than children in families with incomes above the poverty line.

Bobby Morton of Nebraska agrees. “It’s a blessing to us. I wouldn’t be able to operate on the budget I have for food,” she says. “I serve many families who are low income who would not be able to afford to pay me. There’s no way we could feed the kids without this program. I couldn’t charge the parents what it costs.”

Crystal Moore of Nebraska has been a child care provider for more than 12 years. “The children I care for are almost all under the age of five years and I’m proud to say that I am able to offer them a wider range of choices because of this program” says Moore. “ All of us, my family included, have learned a great deal about proper eating habits and how this affects our future.”

In addition to serving young children, the program helps some communities provide food and activities for older youth. Seven states currently have pilot after school programs that serve youth through their high school years. These pilot programs can provide dinner for teens in low-income areas. A key issue for Congress to consider next year is the extent to which this pilot program will be expanded.

Reauthorization Issues
If congressional candidates vying for your vote don’t know this already, it might be a good thing to remind them that in the United States, 13 million children live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger, according to statistics released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in March 2002. The Alliance to End Hunger says that this represents ten percent of American households. The Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University released a report in June 2002 that found children who are undernourished have more trouble mastering basic skills and diminished overall learning potential.

Did You Know?

According to the 2001 U.S. Conference of Mayors survey, requests for food assistance by families with children increased by an average of 19 percent in 2001, and estimates are that 14 percent of these requests for assistance have gone unmet.

The next Congress will play a major role in seeing whether this program continues to successfully improve the nutrition of poor children or not. Child advocates are recommending that the reauthorization process increase the reach of this program so that more children and families will benefit.

This can be achieved, according to Henchy and others, by reducing the paperwork, certification and reporting barriers that now exist; and by increasing meal reimbursement rates to provide a better incentive for child care providers to participate. Advocates also call for expanding the pilot programs for teens beyond the original seven states, and would like to see more poor neighborhoods become eligible as well.

In addition to seeing that there is food on the table for child care and out-of-school programs, a strong CACFP is one way to see that child care providers have the tools and resources needed to make sure that young children learn good eating habits at an early age. “Kids learn their nutrition habits early,” says Henchy. “If the government wants to step up on the critical issue of obesity, it needs to intervene early.”

The toddlers sharing a good snack or teenagers getting supper at their local Boys and Girls Club may have no idea of who is paying the food bills. But adults, especially voting adults, should know that a lot of hard work goes into making sure that good programs get sustained federal funding and support to keep kids well fed. Taking the time to find out where the candidates stand, and to cast your vote is one thing you can do to ensure that the people in Congress are committed to doing the hard work to protect and improve programs for kids.

Talk Back

If you've got comments or questions about this story, we'd like to hear them. Send your response to Cecilia Garcia (ceciliag@connectforkids.org).

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Cecilia Garcia directs Connect for Kids .

Jan Richter is Connect for Kids' senior policy and outreach analyst.