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Cat Herder 12:29 PM 01-23-2020
I just received this email and wanted to share it. I have subscribed to this group's updates for several years and find them to be fair and true.

Child and Adult Care Food Program Changes Proposed in New USDA Rule

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a proposed rule that, while primarily focused on school meals, includes several important proposals for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

The proposed rule:

Updates the regulations on meal modifications for disability or non-disability reasons; Expands flexibility for State Administrative Funds, and Requests comments on future regulatory action to allow grain-based desserts to count toward the grains requirement in CACFP. The meal modifications for disability and non-disability proposals update and reorganize the regulations by:

Clarifying that a medical statement is only required for accommodations that fall outside the meal patterns;

Maintaining nutrition standards for fluid milk substitutions;

and Adding a definition for “State licensed healthcare professional” that could potentially be expanded.


The State Administrative Funds (SAE) proposal changes the requirement to return “unexpended” funds to “unobligated” funds to allow states more flexibility to spend SAE funds across years.

Grain-based Desserts in CACFP

USDA is asking for feedback on the following:

Allowing up to 2 ounce equivalents of grain-based desserts per week in the CACFP (consistent with requirements in SBP and NSLP); and/or Other approaches that would permit grain-based desserts to credit toward the grains requirement in CACFP and support healthy nutrition standards.

During the comment period, FRAC will work with its nationwide network and our national partners to develop and submit comments and seek final rules that will assure the best outcome for children.

Join us for the CACFP Leadership Track: "Agents of Change" as part of this year’s Anti-Hunger Policy Conference. This will be a timely opportunity! Register today.

Contact: Geri Henchy

About Us

FRAC is the leading national nonprofit organization working to eradicate poverty-related hunger and undernutrition in the United States. Visit our website to learn more.

Contact Us

Food Research & Action Center
1200 18th Street, NW Suite 400
Washington, District of Columbia 20036
(202) 986-2200
cbsutton@frac.org
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springv 11:20 AM 01-24-2020
When they state grain based desserts, what do they mean?
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Cat Herder 11:26 AM 01-24-2020
Originally Posted by springvalley112:
When they state grain based desserts, what do they mean?
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Rice Crispy Treats
Popcorn balls
Etc.

Anything taking an approved grain but making it into something the vast majority of kids will eat. A spoon full of sugar and all that...

Their goal is no hunger to go along with healthier food choices. They are pretty awesome and get the real day to day of kids eating habits.

Sure we can offer baked whole oat putty for after school snack, but the kid will just wait and beg for McD's fries on the way home, instead. Better they get some oats and raisins in their cookies and maybe even an apple, than fast food grease.
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Cat Herder 11:40 AM 01-24-2020
Currently, none of these are creditable but many can be made to be a great choice for cost and consumption with minor additions or substitutions of ingredients.
https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites...edDesserts.pdf
• Brownies
• Cakes, including coffee cake and cupcakes
• Cereal bars, breakfast bars, and granola bars
• Cookies, including vanilla wafers
• Doughnuts, any kind
• Fig rolls/bars/cookies and other fruit-filled rolls/bars/
cookies
• Gingerbread
• Ice cream cones
• Marshmallow cereal treats
• Pie crusts of dessert pies, cobblers, and fruit
turnovers
• Sweet bread puddings
• Sweet biscotti, such as those made with fruits,
chocolate, icing, etc.
• Sweet croissants, such as chocolate-filled
• Sweet pita chips, such as cinnamon-sugar flavored
• Sweet rice puddings
• Sweet scones, such as those made with fruits, icing,
etc.
• Sweet rolls, such as cinnamon rolls
• Toaster pastries
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springv 11:45 AM 01-25-2020
We use to serve snack cakes and juice on monday for afternoon snack and they loved it until they got totally burnt out on it and would throw it away as soon as it was served
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flying_babyb 10:11 AM 01-26-2020
I like that there looking into grain based deserts! We used to make this crusty pastry (flour, water, butter) and take whole peaches (tossed in the blender to make a filling) and put in a cupcake tin and bake. It was pretty heatly (minus the butter) snack that the kids LOVED.
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daycarediva 09:58 AM 01-27-2020
UGH, definitely disagree with this. We just got them to stop allowing this to be reimburseable. Child cares are feeding most children, what 80% of their meals? We can leave desserts/junk for home. There are so many ways to make healthy things appetizing.

I make a ton of my own recipes, my kids are currently crazy over chaffles, we have been doing the protein/veggie or fruit at breakfast twice a week. Today I made chocolate ones (two eggs-sour cream-cocoa powder- monkfruit sweetener) They devoured them dipped in unsweetened applesauce. When I emailed my rep, she said absolutely reimbursable, put it under 'eggs'.
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Cat Herder 10:24 AM 01-27-2020
Originally Posted by daycarediva:
UGH, definitely disagree with this. We just got them to stop allowing this to be reimburseable. Child cares are feeding most children, what 80% of their meals? We can leave desserts/junk for home. There are so many ways to make healthy things appetizing.

I make a ton of my own recipes, my kids are currently crazy over chaffles, we have been doing the protein/veggie or fruit at breakfast twice a week. Today I made chocolate ones (two eggs-sour cream-cocoa powder- monkfruit sweetener) They devoured them dipped in unsweetened applesauce. When I emailed my rep, she said absolutely reimbursable, put it under 'eggs'.
Some after-school/summer programs around here only have limited refrigeration and microwaves. They depend on shelf-stable foods. They are still desperately needed in our 60% drop-out region and need their write-offs to stay open. These are the same ones sending food bank boxes home and doing kids' laundry. A lot of places function in survival mode. These parents aren't looking at ratings, just supervision.
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Leigh 06:26 PM 01-27-2020
I'd love to see the return of grain based "desserts". Eliminating those has also eliminated some healthy choices that we could serve. If not allowing a return, at least an amendment to broaden what is allowed would work for me. I don't need to serve poptarts, but there are some granola and oatmeal based things that I would like to be able to serve!
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jenboo 06:41 PM 01-27-2020
I will rejoin the food program once they remove the milk requirement and update the infant feeding guidelines. Until then, I'm enjoying less paperwork and inspections
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LittleExplorers 06:46 AM 01-28-2020
So many of these can be made healthy too. I used to make home made granola bars but can't anymore because that are considered desserts. Same with oatmeal squares.
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Tags:food program, food program - milk requirements, grain-based deserts, grains, homeless, poor, usda, usda food program
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