Child and Adult Care Food Program: Farm to CACFP

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What's New

This new Farm to CACFP webpage! We hope you enjoy it and visit us again soon -- check back for updated announcements.

What is Farm to CACFP? Why is It Important?

Farm to CACFP includes any facility that incorporates local foods through meals and snacks, lessons, taste tests, farmer and farm stand visits, and/or community and parent involvement. Eating locally produced foods and providing opportunities for nutrition education can lead to:

• Increased participation and engagement in meal programs
• Consumption of healthier options
• Support of local economies

Resources

Getting Started

Farm to Preschool Toolkit by Growing Minds: This comprehensive toolkit includes sourcing guidance, preK lesson plans, “This Week in the Garden” activity guides, and “Farm to School Goes Home” weekly newsletters and more!

Farm to Child Care Toolkit by Wake County Smart Start: This toolkit helps child care centers and family day care homes put Farm to Child Care into action. Toolkit includes where to purchase local produce, menu planning, activities for the classroom, resources for kitchen staff and classroom staff, and ways to engage parents and families.

Farm to Childcare - NC State Extension: Find links to Childcare Production Gardens publication series, including Growing and Cooking Fruits and Vegetables at Childcare Centers, Creating Childcare Production Gardens, Snacking and Cooking with Warm and Cool Season Produce, Composting, and Vermicomposting in Childcare Production Gardens.

Educational Activities

Early Sprouts: Children learn to grow, harvest, and prepare nutritious seasonal produce in this seed-to-table curriculum centered around a working garden. Online training, including a new module on Active Play Every Day, cookbooks, and a free monthly newsletter are available.

Grow It, Try It, Like It: A garden-themed nutrition education kit for child care center staff that introduces children to fruits and vegetables. Each set of lessons contains: hands-on activities, planting activities, and nutrition education activities that introduce MyPlate. Includes fun parent/child activities and family-sized recipes that give tips for cooking with children.

Harvest of the Month Curriculum: This Farm to Preschool Curriculum was developed at the  Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, Occidental College. The curriculum includes 9 months of lessons; each month features four weeks of hands-on activities and lessons including cooking activities translated into Spanish.

Reach for the Stars with Farm to Preschool: Did you know that Farm to Preschool programming can enhance a child care center’s star ratings? This resource helps child care centers and family child care homes integrate Farm to Preschool activities into their curriculum while addressing the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). Farm to preschool activities are listed along with the ECERS subscale, items and indicators.

Gardening Tips

NC Cooperative Extension Service: Use this link to locate the Cooperative Extension office in your county. An agent there can assist with gardening or purchasing local food.

Just for Cooks

• Best Practices for Handling Fresh Produce in Schools handout.
• Cooking Local Foods videos from NC State Extension. Video lessons including knife skills, thermometer basics, cooking eggs, and various cooking methods.
• Food Buying Calculator: Find out how much produce to purchase for your child care center
• North Carolina CACFP Seasonal Menus: Four-week cycle menus featuring seasonal, local produce, with links to delicious, CACFP-approved standardized recipes.

Where to Find Local Foods

What’s in Season? This colorful chart shows North Carolina fruit and vegetable availability by month

North Carolina Farm Fresh: A directory of pick-your-own farms, roadside farm markets, and farmers markets throughout North Carolina. It is designed to help the consumers find the freshest locally grown fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs.

USDA’s National On-Farm Market Directory lists markets managed by a single farm operator that sells agricultural and/or horticultural products directly to consumers from a location on their farm or on property adjacent to that farm -- there are 53 North Carolina farms listed here!

CACFP Regulations for Purchasing Local Foods

• Local Foods for Little Eaters: A purchasing toolbox for the Child and Adult Care Food Program
• CACFP Policy Memo CACFP 01-2016: Procuring Local Meat, Poultry, Game and Eggs for Child Nutrition Programs
• CACFP 11-2015: Local Foods in the Child and Adult Care Food Program

Additional Information

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