New Jersey Department of Agriculture and USDA officials commemorated Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Week with a visit to Wishing Well Adult Day Health Care Center in Mercer County. The visit underscored the meal program at the Wishing Well facility in Lawrence Township, which serves approximately 220 adults daily in two shifts, five days a week. Morning clients receive breakfast, a morning snack, and lunch, while afternoon clients receive lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner.
“This location is an outstanding example of how the Child and Adult Care Food Program provides needed nourishment to thousands of New Jersey children and adults,” NJDA Assistant Secretary Joe Atchison III said. “This program is a way for child and adult care centers and emergency shelters to offer nutritious meals so their constituents can develop or continue healthy eating patterns. We strongly encourage participation.”
Wishing Well received a CACFP Achievement Award from the USDA for its exceptional work.
“Many of our clients depend on these meals and the services that we offer,” Wishing Well Managing Director Michael Kravchenko said. “CACFP greatly enhances our ability to serve healthy food to those in need and allows us to cater to the cultural dietary preferences of our clients.”
New Jersey’s 2,200 CACFP sites provide meals and snacks to 106,000 eligible participants at shelters, day care centers, family day care homes, after-school care programs, and adult day care centers each weekday. There are 642 CACFP sponsors in New Jersey. Although federally funded and administered by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, a policy change due to state agency discretion allowed under CACFP federal regulations enabled CACFP Adult Day Care sponsors to incorporate an additional $1 in daily snack meal reimbursement per participant. This helps sponsors meet their food service operational costs while ensuring adult participants receive nutrient-dense meals as per CACFP federal regulations.
National CACFP Week is an educational campaign designed to raise awareness about how the Child and Adult Care Food Program combats hunger by bringing healthy foods to adults in day care settings as well as children in child care homes, centers, and afterschool feeding programs across the country.
Nationally, child and adult day care providers participating in CACFP serve meals to 4.5 million children and adults each day.
To learn more about New Jersey’s Child and Adult Care Food Program, visit http://bit.ly/1FwqWwB or call 609-984-1250.
