The Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 requires the Department of Agriculture to identify and reduce significant improper over- and under- payments in various programs, including the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Therefore, the Food and Nutrition Service is conducting a feasibility evaluation of four possible data collection methods for validating the number and type of meals claimed for reimbursement by family day care homes in the CACFP. The feasibility evaluation is scheduled to collect data from August 2007 until September 2007. Localized data collection is to be conducted in up to four States to evaluate whether the data collection methodologies under evaluation can:

• Validate the meal reimbursement claims submitted by FDCHs for the number of children who are CACFP eligible and present in the FDCHs during the time period(s) for which the meals/snacks were claimed.
• Generate the data required for developing an estimate of improper payments, based on the meals claimed for reimbursement by FDCHs, that meet the requirements of the IPIA.
• Be implemented nationwide in an efficient and cost effective method.

The USDA's Paperwork Reduction Work Group has issued its Final Report.
Click here to read the report.
 

The Sponsor Survey results are now available.
Click here to view what sponsors around the country had to say.
The results will be shared with policy makers. USDA can make improvements to the block claiming and other requirements when the regulations are made final. This is the first in a series of surveys designed to find out the impact of the new block claiming requirements and other aspects of the interim regulations. If you have further question on the survey you may contact Geri Henchy at ghenchy@frac.org.

• CACFP is a good program
• CACFP helps children grow healthy and strong
• CACFP helps working families work.
• CACFP is an indicator of quality child care.
• Nutrition habits start early. CACFP is key to training and supporting the caregivers who feed our children.
• CACFP can play an important role in obesity prevention by educating caregivers about child nutrition.
• Stop The Drop! CACFP participation has dropped 14% since tiering was implemented.
• Five years after tiering--a quarter of a billion fewer meals and snacks were served than projected.

KID STAKE ADVOCACY INITIATIVE 

Plants come with stakes to identify them and with instructions for nurturing to ensure they will flourish.  We all know kids are individual and need proper nourishing too. Building on this theme, The Forum’s Capitol Hill advocacy initiative for F2208 will include presenting our elected officials with “kid stakes.  The front of each stake will look like the one on this page.  The back will be plain, the idea being that the name, age, city and state for each child can be written on the back.
The Forum has arranged to have printed several thousand “kid stakes” the size of a regular plant stake.   We need your help and are asking sponsors to get the message and the stakes out to providers so that we will have thousands of stakes to present to senators and representatives in March.   An alternate is to have children make their own plant stakes by cutting heavy paper into the stake shape and personalizing both sides rather than ordering the pre-printed plant stake.
We are also interested in your ideas for clever ways of presenting the thousands of kid stakes.  A couple ideas are to “plant” many stakes in one flowerpot and present to the appropriate Congressman; or staple them around a paper plate to make them look like blossoms. So the task of advocates is to let providers know of the initiative, distribute and collect stakes, so that as many stakes as possible are collected.
Our past initiatives have been impressive on Capitol Hill.  With your help, the kid stake will be too!  When you return your membership applications, the Forum will send kid stakes to members as long as our supply lasts.  For large quantities (we know some sponsors have tens of thousands of children enrolled) please contact the supplier directly {Sue Lytle Ph-800-748-0517 ext 2509 [Sue.Lytle@MultiPkg.com]} and let them know you want the CACFP Kid Stakes. Prices are $38.27 per 1,000 if ordered in multiples of 5,000, and $47.82 when ordered in multiples of 1,000.
After collecting your stakes from children, bring them to the Washington, D.C. conference with you.  For those unable to participate in this conference, please send your stakes no later than February 15 to The Forum, c/o Geri Henchy at FRAC, 1875 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 450, Washington, D.C. 20009.

Click for example -

Are You A Sponser/Participant In The CACFP That Wants To Make A Difference?
You can....by joining the National CACFP Forum!

The Forum is recognized in Washington, DC as the leading CACFP public policy organization of its kind. With members across the country, the Forum's main focuses are:

• Improving the nutrition of all children in child care
• Accessing quality child care for low-income families
• Sharing information to improve program delivery
• Maintaining program accountiblity

To find out more and/or join CLICK HERE!