| Nutrition Services Division Management Bulletin |
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| To: Child and Adult Care Food Program Sponsors |
Number: 02-218 |
| Attention: Food Program Director |
Date: June 2002 |
| Subject: Infant Meals in the Child and Adult Care Food Program |
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| Reference: United States Department of Agriculture APB: CAC-02-15 |
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This Management Bulletin provides information regarding requirements for meal service in all family day care homes and child care centers participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
All family day care homes and child care centers participating in the CACFP must offer program meals to all eligible children, including infants, who are enrolled for care in their facilities.
A family day care home or child care center may not avoid this obligation by stating that the infants are not "enrolled" in the CACFP, or by citing a logistical or cost barrier to offering an infant meal. Decisions on offering CACFP meals must be based on whether the child is enrolled for care, not whether the child is enrolled in the CACFP.
Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations Section 226.2 defines an enrolled child as "a child whose parent or guardian has submitted to an institution a signed document which indicates that the child is enrolled for child care."
As long as the infant is in care during the meal service period, a family day care home or child care center must offer the infant a meal that complies with program requirements. As with all children in CACFP family day care homes or child care centers, an infant's parent or guardian may decline what is offered and supply the infant's meals instead.
