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January 2022 | View as Webpage
Your Monthly News & Updates
Just Released: 2022 Provider Survey
We want to hear from you! What do you like about the Food Program– and what can we do even better? The Provider Survey is your chance to let us know! Your input is valuable to us. Please take a minute or two to acknowledge our strengths and to help us to grow. Thank you for helping us!
Welcoming Our New Area Coordinator
Hello, I am Martin Juache, and I will be the new Spanish Speaking Area Coordinator. I’m happy to be part of the team working in this capacity since most of my work experience has been in the medical field, such as Health Education and case management. The things I do enjoy as hobbies are running and playing soccer, as well as doing work at my house in Milwaukee.

I am looking forward to meeting you all someday soon!
National Days for January 2022
January 4th – National Spaghetti Day!
Read Strega Nona (DePaola, 1975;) More Spaghetti, I Say (Gelman, 1993;) and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Barrett, 1978.)
January 19th – National Popcorn Day!
Enjoy The Popcorn Book (DePaola, 1978,) possibly with a snack that includes popcorn!
Popcorn Snack!
Popped Popcorn
¾ cup (.25 oz)
1 ½ cups (.5 oz)
3 cups (1 oz)
Whole-grain equivalent
¼ oz equivalent
½ oz equivalent
1-ounce equivalent
Happy Anniversary!
CACFP Anniversaries in January
Congratulations! Thank you for your commitment to serving healthy meals and snacks to the children in your care.

5 years:
Tracy Hood
Bonnie Nonnemacher
Ashley Teetzen

10 years:
Mery Mancera
Anita Ramirez Espana

15 years:
Sheri Bishop
Let's Cook! Wee Chefs - Big Results!
by Julie Giles, WECA Food Program Specialist
This month, my Wee Chefs and I baked Healthy Maple Oatmeal Muffins. Find it on p. 24.

Arlo appointed himself the self-proclaimed “Recipe Guy” and read out each step, while I measured and Sully added our ingredients. Never a purist in the kitchen, I felt the amount of maple syrup in the recipe was more than I cared to add, and my small cooks felt the amount of cinnamon and vanilla could both be increased because we all LOVE those flavors. We substituted white flour for the oat flour in the recipe, so our version of this recipe was heavily modified.

I goofed up and neglected to add crumb topping, and our happy little muffins were already partly baked when I realized my error. SO, I rubbed some butter on the hot muffins when they came out of the oven and topped with a cinnamon and sugar blend – heavy on the former and light on the latter! – which worked out fine.

It’s probably obvious to those of you who have read about our kitchen adventures that we fly by the seat of our pants when we cook or bake. But, that’s fun! I don’t want to convey that there’s a right way to cook – even when using a recipe – because in young minds that means that everything else is wrong. Cooking and baking are inventive, and sometimes (or every time in my kitchen!) we make changes and adaptations. Sometimes we have great results and sometimes not-so-great! And that’s okay. My hope for most activities we do is that the activity is appealing and age appropriate and has lots of opportunities for learning and enjoyment.

In case you’re wondering, the muffins were good. I may have cut the maple syrup in our version TOO much because the finished product was tasty but not at all sweet. They would be delicious topped with peanut or other nut butter – or with berries added! Next time …
Cook with Us! 
The culinary artists at M. Poppins Family Child Care invite you to join us in preparing Whole Wheat Breakfast Crepes (p. 66) our recipe for February, 2022!

If you do and wish to send in comments about your experience making it and serving it in your child care, your name will be entered in a Wee Chefs drawing! Potential submissions should be emailed on or before Tuesday, January 18th. Send to jgiles@wisconsinearlychildhood.org. Use Wee Chefs at name of your child care home in the subject line of your email.  
 
We LOVE photos! If you include a photo of your small friends cooking and it is selected for possible inclusion in the newsletter, a required Waiver will be emailed to you for each child’s parent to sign and return in advance of publication. 
“Let’s Play: A Children’s Activity Book”
Wondering About Gluten?
CACFP and its partners at General Mills developed this resource to help learn about and identify foods with gluten. Download a copy today.
Toddlers at the Table!
Mealtimes with toddlers are often messy and sometimes challenging. Do you have toddlers in care that you are helping to become competent eaters? Ellyn Satter, in Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense (2000) has some advice for dealing with this age group:
 
  • Serve foods that are generally soft, moist and easy to chew.
  •  Serve food that is adequate in its fat content. It will be more appealing to the toddler’s palate and more appropriate for his nutritional development.
  • Pair new, strange or disliked food with something the child frequently likes to eat.
  • Always put bread – and even a second starchy food - on the child’s plate or on the table. The child can eat that, even if she chooses to eat nothing else. Potatoes, noodles, tortillas and rice are often favored by young children.
  • Have the toddler’s favorite food sometimes – and other children’s or yours at other times.
  • Don’t try to force or influence the child to eat anything.
 
I especially appreciated Ellyn reiterating something we, who care for toddlers, already know but sometimes need to be reminded of: Toddlers want to learn and grow. It may not seem that way if your child care toddler refused all his food at breakfast and at lunch! Remind yourself, quietly, that your job is to provide healthy foods at predictable times, and her job is to decide what to eat - or whether to eat at all! Stick to your job. If she chooses not to eat and is disruptive at the table, get her down. Otherwise, let her remain at the table to observe the older children and you using utensils, eating a variety of foods – even the ones that are novel or suspicious to her – and developing table manners. Engage him in the conversation. Help him understand that mealtimes are pleasant and relaxed, and that is not dependent on whether he, or anyone else at the table, eats.
 
Don’t give up offering new and different foods, or even foods that he has rejected many times before. If you do, he will never have an opportunity to try them!
 
She will only be a toddler for a short time. Her job is to grow more independent and more competent. Your job is to help her navigate that! And (easy as it is to say and sometimes hard as it is to do!) yours is to remain calm, caring and consistent all along the way. 
Vegetable Straws: Not a Fruit, Not a Veggie
Vegetable straws are a processed food and may only be credited as a grain/bread when made with whole or enriched grain. If you serve them, you must keep the product’s Child Nutrition (CN) label or manufacturer’s product analysis sheet on file for review by your area coordinator.
DPI Translated Forms
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has many Family Day Care Home forms available in Spanish and Hmong on its site.
Enroll New Children in CACFP.Net
When you enroll new children online, you can claim them right away!
 
Log in to CACFP.Net and select My CACFP Info on the menu bar; then click on Children. At the bottom of your list of children on the left side of the page, click on Add a Child. The program will assign you an available ID number that you will use to claim the child.
 
  • Enter the child’s information, being sure it is correct and complete.
  • Send the electronic child enrollment form to the child’s parent right away. The parent will receive an email from System Administrator. The parent will need the pin number listed at the top of the email. 
  • After authentication, the parent will receive an email from LFWorkflow with a link to the child’s enrollment information. Information with an asterisk is required information.

Parent/Guardian Must Complete Child Enrollment Form Thoroughly
  • Each parent or guardian must thoroughly complete the enrollment form for his or her child.
  • The provider will receive an electronic copy of the submitted enrollment form. You should verify that all information on the child enrollment form is accurate.
  • Keep a printed or electronic copy of each child’s enrollment form with your Food Program records.
  • If the child is under the age of 12 months, remember to complete a paper Provider Formula Agreement with the child’s parent and submit the form to the WECA office. The number assigned on CACFP.Net should match the number on the Provider Formula Agreement. You cannot be paid for infant meals and snacks without a Formula Agreement on file.
 
Effective August 1, 2021, pre-enrolled children will be archived after 60 days if they have not been enrolled in CACFP.Net.
Find Health Insurance Today – Enroll by January 15th for February 1st, 2022 Coverage
It’s important to be healthy so you can take good care of yourself, your family, and the children who are counting on you. Thanks to COVID-19 relief, health insurance prices are lower than ever before. You may now qualify for financial help, even if you did not qualify in the past. This means that four out of five people can find a plan for $10 or less.

It’s time to take care of you. Enroll by January 15, 2022 for coverage to start February 1, 2022. If you have questions, Covering Wisconsin is here to help. Covering Wisconsin is a nonprofit that helps people in Wisconsin find and use health insurance for FREE.

There are two ways to make an appointment:
  • Call Covering Wisconsin at 608-261-1455 or 414-400-9489
Save Time, Save Money! Join WEESSN Today!

The Wisconsin Early Education Shared Services Network (WEESSN) brings together family and center-based early care and education programs to pool resources and leverage economies of scale. By sharing resources, knowledge, and expertise, child care programs can save time and money. Being a part of a network allows you to be BIG where big is important (purchasing and resources sharing) while still staying small, where small is everything – providing care and education within your community, the way you know best.

Think of WEESSN as an extra team member dedicated to helping you improve your programming, decrease your costs and save you time. Our #1 goal is to make your professional life less stressful.
How to Spot Whole Grain-Rich Foods
Do you know how to tell if a grain is whole-grain rich? Check out this handy resource that will teach you the methods for identifying whole-grain rich foods filled with vitamins and other nutrients that children and adults need for growth, development, and good health. 

WECA’s Policy on Provider Suspension from Wisconsin Shares

Here’s a reminder of the WECA Food Program Wisconsin Shares Policy:
  • If a provider is suspended from the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy payment system, WECA will suspend that provider from Food Program participation effective the date of the Shares suspension, until the provider communicates to WECA what his/her intention is regarding the Shares suspension: i.e., to stay open and appeal suspension, or to close the family child care center.
  • If a provider intends to close and not appeal, or fails to communicate with WECA within seven working days of the suspension, then WECA will drop that provider.
  • If the provider states that she/he intends to stay open and provide care for the children even though she/he is not being guaranteed payment, or has private pay children and remains regulated, WECA will closely monitor that provider. WECA may request that a copy of state attendance records be sent with the monthly claim to ensure the claim is valid. Additional requirements such as monthly parent signatures on attendance records may also be required
Direct Deposit
Direct Deposit forms are found on the WECA website:
 
 
Check with your bank or credit union to see when it credits your deposit to your account. Direct deposits are often made on the first working day of each month, BUT that depends when WECA receives funds from USDA. If your claim is received by the fifth of the month following the claim month, it will be processed for on-time payment. 
 
Payment for claims received thirty or more days past their due date is not guaranteed.
 
To find out the reimbursement date: Call 800-783-9322.
For English press 1; for the Food Program, press 2; for the check mailing date, press 1.
For Spanish press 2; for the Food Program, press 2; for the check mailing date, press 1.  
The Food Program’s Online Resources 
Looking for a printable Food Program form? Need to consult the Food Program online manual? So many valuable Food Program resources are available here.
Do You Review Your Claim Summary Each Month?
You should always review your claim summary for every claim you submit to see how you were reimbursed.
  • Claim summaries are found at CACFP.Net.
  • Log in, and on the main menu page click on My CACFP Info.
  • Select Summaries of Processed Claims, and then click on the month you want to review.
 
Income Eligibility

​Don't Miss Out!
Email notifications save us time and money. In the future, we will continue to send you more communications via email. You don’t want to miss out!
  • Do be certain we always have your correct email address.
  • Do be certain that WECA emails don’t go to your junk folder.
  • Do not unsubscribe from WECA emails.
Plant-based Protein
Planning to serve more beans and legumes to replace some animal proteins? Here is a short video on preparing dry beans.
Meal Patterns and Portion Sizes
Portions are the minimum amounts of each food that you must make available for each child. Some children will need more; some will need less. The portion sizes and meal pattern requirements for children over one year are here. 
Remember:
The Provider Connection is published by the WECA Food Program Claims Director: Pam Polenz
Provider Connection Editor: Julie Giles Questions: Call 608-240-9880 or visit our website.
This institution is an equal opportunity provider
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