CACFP and Private Child Care Centers

Catering to the Distinct Preferences of Young Learners

CKC Good Food works with many child care centers to help establish healthy eating habits early in life. Our age-appropriate meals spark young children's interest in a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, and culturally diverse entrees.

Throughout our 30 years of school food service, we’ve learned the importance of menus tailored to the distinct tastes of young children. We consider how a meal’s colors “play” together, the size and texture of foods - crunchy, mushy, runny or toughness – from kids’ perspectives, and the spiciness, sweetness and tartness that may turn kids off. Visually appealing meals can motivate kids to eat. If we can add an element of fun to the food presentation, younger kids are even more likely to be engaged at mealtime. For example, we’ve designed radio flyer wagons to hold wooden trays with serving-bowl inserts. This simple change has helped entice kids to try new foods, such as farm-to-daycare foods.

Our CACFP menus offer five-week rotations with daily hot, cold and vegetarian options as well as an allergen-free (gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, soy-free, etc.) menu. You can easily indicate the quantities of each option when you place your order via our easy-to-use online system. All our meals include written instructions for serving size and include approved serving containers and the correct serving utensils to ensure compliance with CACFP-portion sizes for your students.

We know each center is unique and will do our best to accommodate your specific requests around students' desires, site coordinators' preferences and available kitchen facilities. One common request is to provide meals family style, as our centers have found it teaches kids important life lessons, such as sharing, manners and self-sufficiency.

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