Quickly and easily record meals and snacks served in your child care business for tax purposes with my child care meal and snack count recordkeeping forms. If you use the food program but prefer to write paper records to transfer later, you can use these forms to record your counts and keep compliant with the food program requirements. If you do not use the food program, this is the perfect paper system to record meals and snacks.
How to Use the Child Care Meal & Snack Count Recordkeeping Forms
This system works best in a 1/2″ binder.
- Print binder cover if desired. I recommend printing it on cardstock or photo paper for the best results.
- Print the Child Care Meal and Snack Counts page for each month. Type in month and year or write it in the box at the top right corner.
- Cross out the weekend days or other days that your center is closed.
- Daily record number of meals and snacks served. Make notes in the note’s column (initials of children served, who was out sick, if you serve components for breakfast vs snack in the morning, etc)
- Extras: count popsicles, etc served in addition to regular meals and snacks.
- Total pages front and back.
The Child Care Meal & Snack Count Recordkeeping printables include:
- Binder Cover
- Child Care Meal & Snack Counts monthly recording form (2 pages to print double-sided)
- Yearly Child Care Meal & Snack Counts Tally Form
Mini Pancakes, Strawberries, Milk 
Penne with Meat Sauce, Peas, Applesauce, Milk 
PB Crackers, Mixed Raw Vegs w/Ranch, Water
Be sure to check out my printable Jan-Dec monthly menu forms for easy menu planning all year.
Should you participate in the food program?
Tom Copeland breaks down the reasons why you should use the food program for your child care business.
I used the food program for over 15 years and felt it was a huge benefit to me and my business financially and for nutrition education. The food program sets a standard for what you serve the children in your care. The food program supports child care providers with resources, ideas and helps with child eating issues which often come up when working with children and families. The reimbursements boost your income while still allowing you to claim your meal expenses.
Beef Stroganoff, Egg Noodles, Peaches, Broccoli, Milk 
Life Cereal, Strawberries, Milk
The food program can be a selling point for parents who want their children to have healthy foods while in child care although I find most parents don’t know what the food program is until I explain it to them. Educating parents and assisting parents with nutrition is important too.
After 15 years I decided to drop the food program to reduce the amount of paperwork and my commitments. Be aware the food program requires certain beverages to be served or you are not reimbursed for that child.
If a parent wants their child to have a milk alternative due to personal preference (without a medical reason) the food program will not pay you for that child. The program no longer made sense for me personally so I decided to use this recordkeeping method for my tax records. For other child care tax records, I recommend using KidKare.
If you use a written form of recording meal counts with the food program, you must indicate on the form which children ate with their initials or a numbering system.
