Child and Adult Care Food Program

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a federal program that provides reimbursements for nutritious meals and snacks to eligible children and adults who are enrolled for care at participating child care centers, day care homes, and adult day care centers. CACFP also provides reimbursements for meals served to children and youth participating in afterschool care programs, children residing in emergency shelters, and adults over the age of 60 or living with a disability and enrolled in day care facilities. CACFP contributes to the wellness, healthy growth, and development of young children and adults in the United States.

Child Care Centers

Are you a program operator caring and serving meals to children? If so, you may be eligible to participate in CACFP and receive reimbursements for serving healthy meals and snacks to children. Eligible public or private nonprofit child care centers, outside-school-hours care centers, Head Start programs, and other institutions which are licensed or approved to provide day care services may participate in CACFP, independently or as sponsored centers. Contact your state agency for more information.

Adult Day Care Centers

Are you a program operator providing nonresidential care to adults? If so, you may be eligible to participate in CACFP and receive reimbursements for serving healthy meals and snacks to adults. Public or private nonprofit adult day care facilities which provide structured, comprehensive services to nonresidential adults who are functionally impaired, or aged 60 and older, may participate in CACFP as independent or sponsored centers. Contact your state agency for more information.

Per-meal reimbursement with no cap and no match — you are paid for every eligible meal and snack you serve, for as long as you participate. Rates reset each July 1 with the Consumer Price Index.

Rates in effect July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027, contiguous states:

• Centers (child care, outside-school-hours, at-risk afterschool, adult day care), per meal: breakfast — paid 42¢, reduced price $2.24, free $2.54; lunch or supper — paid 45¢, reduced price $4.36, free $4.76; snack — paid 12¢, reduced price 65¢, free $1.30.

• Day care homes, per meal: breakfast — Tier I $1.74, Tier II 62¢; lunch and supper — Tier I $3.31, Tier II $1.99; snack — Tier I 98¢, Tier II 27¢.

• Higher rates apply in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands; DC uses the contiguous-state figures.

On top of the cash: "These rates do not include the value of USDA Foods or cash-in-lieu of USDA Foods, which institutions receive as additional assistance for each lunch or supper served to participants under the program."

Sponsoring organizations of day care homes also receive separate administrative reimbursement rates. Rates "must be revised annually, on July 1, to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index," so budget for a small annual bump. You apply through your state agency, not USDA directly.

You do not apply to USDA. "The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a federally-funded program administered by states," and "Centers interested in participating in CACFP should contact their state agency."

Two routes, your choice: "Child care centers, adult care centers, afterschool care program operators, and emergency shelters can apply to participate in CACFP through a sponsoring organization that will be financially and administratively responsible or they can apply directly to the state agency and operate as an independent center." A sponsor carries the financial and administrative load; going independent means you carry it yourself.

Start here either way: the CACFP state contacts map at https://www.fna.usda.gov/cacfp/program-contacts — "The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is administered at the state or territory level. Find your local CACFP contact information using the map below."

Intake is continuous. There is no application round and no federal deadline. Your state agency sets its own application packet, licensing checks, training, and timeline, so ask them for the current packet — USDA does not publish a national CACFP application form.

About the three forms attached to this record: only one of them is ever yours to fill in.

• CACFP Meal Benefit Income Eligibility Form — yours, but for running the program, not for applying. It is the household income form used to classify each participant's meals as free, reduced-price, or paid, which is what sets your reimbursement rate. USDA's prototype packet at https://www.fna.usda.gov/cacfp/meal-benefit-income-eligibility-form contains "Letters to Households: Child Day Care and Tier II Providers and Adult Day Care," "Letters to Tier I and Family Day Care Home Providers," and the "Meal Benefit Income Eligibility Form: Child Day Care and Adult Day Care (with instructions)." Most states issue their own version — use your state's if it has one.

• FNS-44, Report of the Child and Adult Care Food Program — not yours. The form itself is addressed to the state: "STATE AGENCY: Submit report according to the instructions 30 and 90 days following the month being reported. Send original to the Regional Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service." Your monthly meal counts feed into it, but you send your claim to your state agency or your sponsor, never to USDA.

• FNS-74 — not yours either. It is the Federal-State Agreement for Child Nutrition and Food Distribution Programs, the agreement between USDA and your state agency (USDA policy memo SP01-2017, "Release of the Revised Federal State Agreement for Child Nutrition and Food Distribution Programs": https://www.fna.usda.gov/release-revised-federal-state-agreement-child-nutrition-and-food-distribution-programs-form-fns-74).

Who to ask: your state CACFP contact from the map above. No national CACFP application phone line is published; USDA's general line is its Contact Us page at https://www.fna.usda.gov/about/contact-us.

One naming note if you are searching: as of June 1, 2026 the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) became the Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA), so older links use fns.usda.gov and current ones use fna.usda.gov.

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