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. Child Care Meal & Snack Count Recordkeeping Forms are available for purchase here.
Be sure to check out my printable Jan-Dec monthly menu forms for easy menu planning all year.
What is the Child and Adult Care Food Program?
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a crucial initiative designed to ensure that children and adults in low-income communities have access to nutritious meals. A childcare center must be licensed, or license-exempt provider to participate in the food program. Established by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), CACFP provides funding to childcare centers, afterschool programs, and adult daycares to serve balanced meals and snacks to participants. This program plays a vital role in promoting healthy eating habits and addressing food insecurity among vulnerable populations through child care centers and adult day care centers. By offering nutritious meals that meet specific dietary requirements, CACFP helps to enhance the overall well-being and development of children and adults, ensuring they have the nourishment they need to thrive. Through its support, CACFP not only fosters healthy communities but also helps to break the cycle of poverty by offering access to nutritious food for those who need it most. Read here about who is eligible to participate in CACFP as well as more program information. Read about the infant meal pattern and serving sizes here. Regardless if you participating in the food program or not, these are excellent guidelines for feeding young children.
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
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 and 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. Find your local agency here.
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 statement), 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 eligible children ate with their initials or a numbering system.
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.
Non-Discrimination Statement
In accordance with Federal civil rights law, the USDA (U.S.Department of Agriculture) prohibits programs participating in the CACFP from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity. Your state licensing program may require you to put a non-discrimination statement in your handbook or on your website, indicating this; however, hopefully, you are an equal opportunity provider already and wouldn’t be discriminating anyway.
Child Care Menu Templates
My editable child care menu templates are very popular! They make menu planning for child care very quick and easy. I prefer making a monthly menu to make planning a once-a-month task rather than weekly. Monthly menus tend to be seasonal as well, so they are can be reused and tweaked from year to year according to your current group’s needs or preferences. The menu templates make following the CACFP meal patterns easy.
