Foods Served in Child Care Programs Participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and Alignment with Program Meal Patterns

Objective: Assess Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) program compliance with meal component requirements for children aged 3-5 years by program type, and describe foods and beverages most commonly served.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of 1-week menu surveys during winter/spring 2017.

Setting: US CACFP-participating child care programs.

Participants: Nationally representative multistage cluster sample of 664 programs: 222 child care centers, 247 Head Start programs, 195 family child care homes.

Main outcome measure(s): Percentage of meals including required components; frequently served foods and beverages.

Analysis: Mean percentages; 2-tailed t tests; alpha = 0.05 significance level.

Results: Most breakfasts (97%), lunches (88%), and afternoon snacks (97%) included all required CACFP meal components. Most breakfasts included fruits (96%), but not vegetables; 16% included a meat/meat alternate. Most lunches (81%) included both fruits and vegetables. Afternoon snacks were mostly grains/breads (80%) and fruits (57%). Most frequently served foods included 1% unflavored milk and fresh fruits such as apples and bananas. Most menus limited juice, offered low-sugar cereal, and did not include flavored milk; very few menus included noncreditable foods with added sugar.

Conclusions and implications: Most CACFP meals provided required components, but there is room for improvement, particularly for increasing vegetables served and limiting foods high in added sugar and fat.