At-Risk Meals Introduction
The At-risk afterschool meals program is a part of the overarching Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) and offers federal reimbursement to afterschool programs that serve a meal or snack to children in low-income areas. This program became available nationwide as a part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. A legislative history of how this program evolved can be found in the USDA handbook. This program is funded and administered by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, but administered by the Utah State Board of Education, Child Nutrition Programs.
Schools and other eligible organizations participating on the program are referred to as At-risk Afterschool care centers. These centers provide a much-needed service to their communities. They give children a safe place to go after school and provide access to nutritious food that gives children the energy they need to concentrate on homework, as well as join their friends in physical, educational, and social activities. FNS and USBE acknowledges the dedication and commitment of sponsors and centers in ensuring that the meals claimed for reimbursement meet CACFP requirements, and that meal time is a pleasant, nutritious, and sociable experience for the children in their care.
There are several different types of organizations that can administer the Program. Organizations such as schools, child care centers, governmental entities, private or non-profit organizations, and religious institutions are just a few types of organizations that can offer the At-Risk Meals program. Sponsors or sites interested in offering the program will work with staff at our office to obtain approval. Sponsoring organizations may have one or more sites they are responsible for overseeing. The sponsor will be the entity to receive the federal reimbursement from our office to cover the administrative and operating costs of preparing and serving meals to eligible children at their program sites. Independent Centers participating in CACFP may become their own sponsor for this program. There are several potential ways organizations may come together to offer meals. We will talk about this more throughout the training, but there is a useful handout available on the At-risk Public webpage on the Program Overview tab.
Even though you meet all the other requirements previously discussed there are some circumstances that would make an organization ineligible for participation. For example if: An institution or any of its principals are included on the CACFP National Disqualified List (NDL) or have been declared ineligible for any other publicly funded program for violating that program’s requirements, States must deny their application. As part of the application process you will be required to submit the following: A statement listing the publicly funded programs in which the institution and its principals have participated during the past 7 years; and a certification that during the last 7 years, neither the institution nor its principals have been declared ineligible to participate in any other publicly funded program by reason of violating that program’s requirements; or Instead of certification, an institution may provide documentation that it was later reinstated or determined eligible for the program, including the payment of any debts owed.
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