It’s the Week of the Young Child, and today is Taco Tuesday — a perfect day to advocate for early childhood nutrition.
Young children need healthy meals to fuel their learning and development. The Child and Adult Food Care Program (CACFP) provides nutritious meals and snacks to children in family child care programs, child care centers, Head Start programs, and afterschool programs. In November 2015, U.S. Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced a new bill to improve CACFP. The Early Childhood Nutrition Improvement Act (H.R. 3886) proposes four changes to:
- Provide an additional meal or snack for children in care for more than 8 hours per day, ensuring that low-income children in care for long durations have access to nutritious food
- Allow for-profit early care and learning programs to certify their CACFP eligibility every 6 months rather than every month, thereby reducing the burden of paperwork
- Establish an advisory committee to examine the feasibility of reducing unnecessary paperwork
- Review and issue guidance on the process of addressing serious deficiency and achieving compliance
You can help ensure children get the healthy start that they deserve. Please take action and urge your legislators to support the Early Childhood Nutrition Improvement Act.