Participation in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) among California’s family child care home providers increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent study. The CACFP is a federally funded initiative that helps provide nutritious meals in child care settings and has been linked to improved diet quality and reduced food insecurity for children.
Historically, participation by family child care home providers declined after a tiered reimbursement system was introduced in 1996. This system offered lower reimbursement rates to providers outside low-income areas, even though all providers faced similar administrative requirements.
Researchers analyzed California administrative data from October 2018 through December 2023 to assess how temporary changes during the pandemic—specifically, an increase in reimbursements and the elimination of tiered payments—affected provider participation. The study found that after these policy changes, participation stabilized among tier 1 providers and increased among tier 2 providers, who benefited most from the removal of tiers. When the original tiered structure returned post-pandemic, participation dropped again for both groups, with a more significant decline among tier 2 providers.
The study’s authors suggest that making higher reimbursements permanent and removing tiers could help retain more family child care home providers, expand access to nutritious meals for children, and support provider financial stability. They recommend further research into CACFP trends across different types of providers and in other states to better understand the effects of such policy changes.
“This study was published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. It was conducted by Susana Matias with the Department of Metabolic Biology & Nutrition at the University of California, Berkeley, Kassandra Bacon, Danielle Lee, Celeste Felix, and Lorrene Ritchie with the Nutrition Policy Institute, and Samantha Marshall and Elyse Vitale with the Child and Adult Care Food Program Roundtable. This study was funded by Healthy Eating Research.”
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