Overview

The Child & Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is a federally funded children’s food program supporting the healthy development of young children, especially those in low-income families, by subsidizing nutritious meals and snacks for children in paid child care. Family child care providers (FCCs) are an important source of paid care for many low-income children in need of nutritional health supports. This research project aims to identify policies and procedures of the CACFP program that may contribute to a rural/urban divide in access to the program.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect child care in unprecedented ways. This project will seek to identify the impact of the pandemic on CACFP program sponsors and on participating FCCs.

Research Team

Brenda Davis Koester, Co-Principal Investigator; Associate Director, Center for Social & Behavioral Science
Elizabeth T. Powers, Co-Principal Investigator, Associate Professor of Economics at Illinois
Rachel A. Gordon, Co-Investigator; Associate Dean for Research and Administration, College of Health and Human Sciences, Northern Illinois University
Stephanie Sloane, Co-Investigator; Senior Research Specialist, Family Resiliency Center at Illinois
Katherine Speirs, Co-Investigator; Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Norton School of Family and Consumer Economics, University of Arizona

Contact:
Brenda Davis Koester
bkoester@illinois.edu
217-244-6486

Funding

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation