The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services’ (DPHHS) Child and Adult Care Food Program has received an $111,034 Child Care Wellness Grant from the US Department of Agriculture. The grant will be used to improve nutrition, health and wellness in child care settings across Montana.
The state will fund activities in 2012 and 2013 that promote nutrition in child care that reflect the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, to providers of child care centers and family and group day care homes.
“It’s important that all of Montana’s children receive the highest quality nutrition possible in our child care community,” said DPHHS Director Anna Whiting Sorrell. “Reducing childhood hunger continues to be a high priority for DPHHS.”
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) plays a vital role in improving the quality of child care and in making care more affordable for low-income families. In 2010, the MT CACFP distributed $9.5 million in meal reimbursement to child care centers and family and day care homes. The program also reimbursed more than 1,000 local care providers for over 7.7 million meals with high nutritional value and trained over 135 local cooks. Through CACFP, more than 3.3 million infants and children and 112,000 adults receive nutritious meals and snacks each day in the United States.
“This grant will provide Cook’s Trainings for CACFP-participating child care facilities in eighteen cities and includes all seven Indian Reservations.” said Mary Musil, manager of the Department’s Child and Adult Care Food Program. “Many children receive more than one-half of their daily food at child care, so the nutritional quality of those meals is very important to their health.”
An estimated 15,000 Montana children will benefit from the training provided to the cooks who feed them when they are in child care environments.
The USDA's Food and Nutrition Service oversees the administration of 15 nutrition assistance programs, including the child nutrition programs that touch the lives of one in four Americans over the course of a year. These programs work in concert to form a national safety net against hunger.
For more information on the Child and Adult Care Food Program contact Jon Ebelt at [email protected]
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