This morning CACFP Roundtable hosted some insightful, passionate, and inspirational panelists during the meeting, Getting CACFP Programs Ready for Summer Meal Service. A quick overview:
Nora Shigemoto, YMCA of Superior California, shared some basic principles and pathways to enter summer food service programs setting up Clarissa Hayes with the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) to provide an overview of why serving summer meals is beneficial not only to the community but to the program serving the meals! She also shared with us some of the basic rules and eligibility requirements during her presentation.
Our practitioner panelists Karen Fontenette with Heavens Windows, Doreen Hassan with the YMCA of Silicon Valley, and Ellen Samples with the Central Arkansas Library System shared that partnerships are key to success and what kind of partnerships you might want to consider! They also shared compliance factors, how/when to ramp up your program, and their passion for feeding children. Inspirational.
Daniel Hatcher, with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, guided us through some simple enrichment activities that can be done while you provide your meal service. Very cool "back of pocket" resources to get people talking and kids engaged. Give them a try!
We closed with a Q&A with our panelists!
The recording, PowerPoint slides, and resource links that were discussed are below!
We hope you find this discussion fruitful. Please send questions, comments, or thoughts with us @samantha@ccfproundtable.org.
Recording
Powerpoint Slides
Links to Resources
Upcoming CACFP Roundtable Events
March 16th! CACFP Roundtable Member Meeting - open to the whole community this month. Register here.
We'll be having a lively conversation about remote monitoring. Discuss from your unique perspective what worked, what didn't, and what you'd like to see as we think about the future of monitoring in CACFP. We created an issue brief that will guide us through the moderated discussion. Please take a look: read through the three options and the questions we'll start with for each option to begin our deliberations. Think through your experiences and what you would propose as an option - even a new one! The CACFP Roundtable is excited to have this conversation with you and see what comes out of this.
March 30th! Pandemic era flexibilities and funding are ending for CACFP: Let's discuss what this means for the CACFP Community. Register here.
Over the last three years there have been nationwide waivers and flexibilities issued by
USDA to help the CACFP community respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure access to CACFP meals in an ever-changing environment. The Department of Health and Human Services has declared the end of the public health emergency which provides an end date for these flexibilities. Congress also passed an act, the Keep Kids Fed Act, that provided additional funding that is expiring this summer. Join the CACFP Roundtable, your CACFP community, USDA FNS Western Region, and CDSS CACFP Branch to hear more about what information is currently available, how CDSS is planning for the impact of the waiver expirations, and to discuss how lessons learned by utilizing waivers can be incorporated into future program operations.
October 8-11th, Annual CACFP Conference!
Fill out this survey to tell us what you want to see at the Annual CACFP Conference this year!
