H.Res. 422: Recognizing the importance of the Child and Adult Care Food Program and its positive effect on the lives of low income children and families

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H.Res. 422

Recognizing the importance of the Child and Adult Care Food Program and its positive effect on the lives of low income children and families

Sponsor
Rep. George Miller

Date
May 18, 2009 (111th Congress, 1st Session)

Staff Contact
Communications

Floor Situation

H.Res. 442 is expected to be considered on the floor of the House on Monday, May 18, 2009, under a motion to suspend the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote for passage. The bill was introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-VA) on May 15, 2009, and referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, which took no official action.

Bill Summary

H.Res. 442 resolves that:

  • "Recognizes the importance of the Child and Adult Care Food Program and its overall positive effect on the lives of low-income children and families, as well as its positive effect on improving the quality of a child's child care environment;
  • "Promotes program collaboration and encourages States to better coordinate the use of all Federal and State funding streams across early learning and child development systems and programs, including the Child and Adult Care Food Program;
  • "Recognizes the need to provide adequate resources to improve the availability and quality of nutritious meals and snacks served by Child and Adult Care Food Program facilities;
  • "Recognizes the impact of nonprofit and community organizations that work to increase the awareness of, and access to, the Child and Adult Care Food Program;
  • "Recognizes the need to provide States with resources to improve the availability of nutritious meals in child care;
  • "Recognizes that the Child and Adult Care Food Program provides a higher meal quality and a substantial nutrition contribution to the diets of children in child care; and
  • "Recognizes the Child and Adult Care Food Program can help young children establish healthy eating habits which help to prevent childhood obesity."

Background

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) provides federal funding to States to support food programs for children in child care centers or day care, as well as adults in day care facilities. Meal reimbursements are higher for meals served to low income individuals. According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the program "lacks up-to date independent evaluations to indicate whether or not recent program changes are achieving results." In an attempt to correct these assessment problems, OMB is "collecting annual data on the accuracy of reimbursement rate determinations in family day care homes to determine the program's efficiency in ensuring payments are made properly." According to the bill's findings, the program provided meals and snacks to about 3 million children in almost 200,000 child care facilities in 2008.