National Days in February

Feb. 4: National Homemade Soup Day

Read Dumpling Soup (Rattigan, 1993,) Growing Vegetable Soup (Ehlert, 1987,) and Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months, (Sendak, 1962) and enjoy making and eating homemade soup!

According to the Crediting Handbook for the CACFP, your homemade soup may credit as shown here:

(Crediting Handbook for the CACFP, p 57)

(Crediting Handbook for the CACFP p 41)

https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/resource-files/crediting-handbook.pdf

Food Program Anniversaries in February

5 years: Maria Arellano

20 years: Elise Wiegert, Dawn Pearson

25 Years: Tammy Bakalars, Vivian Kind, Kathryn Shisler 

We applaud your commitment to serving nutritious meals and snacks to the children in your care!  

Welcome to Our New Providers!

Keaira, Jowanda, Shereah, Terrisene, and Tiara in Milwaukee

We welcome you and applaud this mark of professionalism!  

National CACFP Week is March 16-22

Get ready to celebrate National CACFP Week with us! It's a national education and information campaign sponsored annually the third week of March by the National CACFP Sponsors Association. The campaign is designed to raise awareness of how the USDA’s Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) works to combat hunger and support providers. CACFP brings healthy foods to households across the country for children in child care centers, homes, and afterschool programs, as well as adults in day care.

Do you have a story to tell about the impact of CACFP? How have the children in your care benefitted? Have you grown in your understanding of healthy meals and snacks? Let us know!

Submit your stories on or before Feb. 12 to foodprogram@wisconsinearlychildhood.org with ‘CACFP Impact’ as the subject and be entered for a chance to win one of two certificates to attend 1 day of the 2025 WECA Conference! Note: Enter only once. Your input may be featured on social media and in other WECA electronic or print media.

Components and Crediting 

Recipes to Try! 

Try this recipe from National CACFP for Orange Cranberry Quick Bread and serve as a bread/bread alternate:

Orange Cranberry Quick Bread

MyPlate offers this recipe for Broccoli Potato Soup:

Broccoli Potato Soup | MyPlate

Note: The dairy crediting information for this recipe does not mean it can be served in replacement for dairy milk as a beverage or credited on menus as milk.

Ask the Food Program

Question:

I was deducted for “No Enrollment on file.” The child was enrolled, and the parent and I did the re-enrollment. Why was I deducted? 

Answer:

This is a great question, and providers lose a lot of money on their claims for this reason.

CHILDREN SUBJECT TO RE-ENROLLMENT IN A CALENDAR MONTH TURN YELLOW IN CACFP.NET ON THE 2nd OF THAT MONTH. Timely re-enrollment must be completed – i.e., signed by the parent and submitted – on or before the 9^th of the month. If that does not occur, the meals and snacks served to the child(ren) in that month will be disallowed for “No Enrollment on File.”

Example: The Child Enrollment Form was signed by the parent on January 20th, 2024. The child’s name will appear with an asterisk behind it and turn yellow in CACFP.Net on February 2nd, 2025. Re-enrollment must be completed on or before February 9th, 2025, to be timely and allow the meals and snacks served to that child in January to be reimbursed.

Choose Yogurt Lower in Added Sugars

Effective Oct.1, 2025, “yogurt served in the CACFP must contain no more than 12 grams of added sugars per 6 ounces.”

How do you determine that? Use this resource from USDA to verify whether the yogurt you currently serve meets the new guidelines. Choose Yogurt That is Lower in Added Sugars in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Monitoring and Oversight

Child Enrollments: Things to Watch

• Each parent/guardian must complete all the applicable information on the Child Enrollment Form for their child.
• You must verify that all information on the Child Enrollment Form is complete and correct, including each child’s meal/snack authorization. Incomplete or incorrect information is considered provider error and is not adjustable.
• Food Program recommends selecting all meals and snacks for which the provider is authorized. This includes children enrolled for occasional care, such as drop-in care or summer-only care.

• Food Program recommends selecting Yes to Schedule May Vary to help account for changes to attendance:

Meals or snacks that were not clicked during enrollment/re-enrollment will not be eligible for reimbursement or adjustment by selecting Schedule May Vary.



• If you notice an error, contact the Food Program right away to prevent further deductions to your claim.
• Be sure to keep copies of complete enrollment forms for review during Home Visits by your Area Coordinator, or representatives of DPI or USDA.
• If the enrolled child is an infant, and the parent is providing breast milk or iron-fortified infant formula and solids when the child is developmentally ready, be sure you complete Infant Foods Provided by Parent each month in which that child is claimed and being served formula and solids: https://wisconsinearlychildhood.org/programs/food-program/one-infant-meal-component-provided-by-parent/

In that situation, you may not be reimbursed for any meals or snacks served to that infant, as you are not providing any of the meal or snack components.

Alternately, you and the parent may choose not to claim that enrolled infant on your monthly menus.

Dropping Children from Care in CACFP.Net

To drop a child from care, wait 60 days after you last claimed that child to be sure you’ve been paid correctly.

• Log in to CACFP.Net.
• On the main menu page, click on Drop a Child from care, located under Claim Tools.
• Complete and submit the form.

Did You Receive Your Updated Child Care License or Certificate?

Whenever you have updates to your child care license or cert – for example, type of regulation, address, name change, capacity, age range of children in care, hours of operation, and/or days of operation – you MUST submit a copy of that new cert or license to foodprogram@wisconsinearlychildhood.org or fax it to 866-222-9520. Be certain the most current version is posted on your wall.

Are you Licensed and Do You Use an Assistant?

We need your completed Statement for Providers with Assistants Form on file so your claim will process correctly: https://wisconsinearlychildhood.org/programs/food-program/food-program-statement-for-providers-with-assistants



Your form won’t expire until you tell us that you no longer use an assistant.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

The Provider Connection is published by the WECA Food Program.

Any Questions: Call 608-240-9880 or visit our website.

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