Over the past several years, Food with Care has centered on lifting up the needs and voices of California’s childcare providers—especially those participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Alongside our co-leads at the CACFP Roundtable, and with the support of countless advocates, we’ve worked to spotlight the inequities in meal reimbursement policies, uplift provider experiences, and push for change in how California nourishes its youngest learners.
This work has been powerful and intentionally focused. By choosing to highlight one slice of the broad CACFP community, we were able to deepen understanding of a policy failure that disproportionately affects women of color and the children they care for.
Now, we’re widening the lens.
Food with Care is evolving—not because the original work is done, but because our responsibility has grown. CACFP doesn’t only support childcare providers; it nourishes a broad and diverse community:
- Older adults in adult day health centers
- Family caregivers
- People living with disabilities
- People recovering from illness
- People navigating housing insecurity
This program touches many lives and intersects with multiple systems—health, aging, disability services, education, and care. We are choosing to recognize and honor that complexity.
Rather than continuing to ask the same questions, we’re making space to listen. Not just to hear what’s wrong—but to be told what needs to change, how, and by whom. This is a shift in both content and approach. One that aligns with our organizational mission and values, and with what impacted communities have been showing us all along.
What’s changing:
We will no longer lead advocacy focused solely on childcare providers and CACFP-specific reimbursement rates. That leadership has been thoughtfully passed on to our trusted partners at the CACFP Roundtable and others who continue to center the early learning and childcare community. We want to thank them for over a decade of partnership in advocacy and leadership.
What’s continuing:
Our commitment to reducing barriers to food and health access.
Our relationships with communities who’ve shaped this work and live its realities.
Our belief in policy change led by those most impacted and grounded in lived experience.
What’s next:
A wider-angle view of CACFP and the people it touches.
Work rooted in listening, truth-telling, and alignment across systems.
A campaign that reflects the full range of those who rely on CACFP—not just as a program, but as a lifeline.
Flashback: Where We Started
Before Food with Care became a campaign, it was a focused effort to address a policy inequity hurting California’s family childcare providers.
Early on, we shared stories, hosted listening sessions, created tools, published data, and made the case for equity and investment. This intentional beginning was a testament to our belief that advocacy must be grounded in community experience.
As part of our evolution, we will be archiving past resources—budget asks, fact sheets, recorded webinars, and other tools—so they remain accessible for reflection, learning, and action. These materials tell the story of how and why we got here, and they continue to matter.
We’re excited about what’s ahead and deeply grateful for what came before. Thank you to everyone who helped build Food with Care, and to those who will help shape what it becomes.
Let’s keep going.
Archive
Fact Sheets
- 2022 Fact Sheet
- 2018 Fact Sheet
- USDA Factsheet - Serving Adult Participants in the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program
Studies/Research
- CACFP Virtual Monitoring
- Off-site Monitoring Waiver: Oregon Case Study
- Family Care need more CACFP: Report
- CA Childcare data tool
- California state website
