Households with Children in CACFP Child Care Homes - Effects of Meal Reimbursement Tiering: A Report to Congress on the Family Child Care Homes Legislative Changes Study

by Mary Kay Crepinsek, Linda M. Ghelfi , and William Hamilton

Within the family child care home portion of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), low-income children increased from 21 to 39 percent of all participating children between 1995 and 1999. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996 mandated a tiered reimbursement structure for CACFP child care homes--designed to target benefits more narrowly to low-income children--and called for a study of its effects on program participants and on meals offered to children. The study finds that the proportion of dollars allocated to low-income children's meals more than doubled, from 21 percent to 45 percent.

Keywords: meal reimbursement tiering, Child and Adult Care Food Program, CACFP, child care, childcare, family child care providers, child nutrition programs, welfare reform, Food and Nutrition Service, FNS

In this publication...

• Entire Report
• Abstract, Contents, Executive Summary
• Introduction
• Impact of Tiering on Income Targeting of CACFP Participation and Benefits
• Tiering?s Targeting Efficiency
• Characteristics of Children Served by CACFP Family Child Care Homes
• Households? CACFP Child Care Experience
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendix A
• Appendix B