KidKare

10/13/2026

Where does your food come from? 🌾

Farm to CACFP Week starts this Sunday, October 18. Swipe through for easy ways to join in this week, no farm or garden needed.

Every year the National CACFP Association uses this week to celebrate local food, gardening and food education in child care programs. A few easy ideas you can still pull together:

• A fall taste test: set out 2 or 3 seasonal fruits or vegetables and let the kids vote for a favorite
• Story time about where food grows, with a book like Tops and Bottoms or The Ugly Vegetables
• A “local food of the week” the kids can look for on their plates
• Seasonal placemats the kids draw themselves

Have a little outdoor space? Lettuce, kale, parsley and cilantro can often be started in a small fall garden, depending on your climate, and kids can harvest and eat what they grew.

Even one locally grown item on the menu counts. More ideas, a fall produce list and seasonal recipes are on the blog 👇
https://www.kidkare.com/🌾-farm-to-cacfp-week/

10/05/2026

✨ Meet Hazel, the newest addition to the KidKare ecosystem!

Built for childcare centers, Hazel is your AI front desk. It answers calls and website questions, books tours during the conversation, and keeps follow-up moving, even when your team is busy.

Come discover Hazel at the Child Care Success Summit and explore more ways KidKare supports your childcare day:

💼 Parachute is your all-in-one childcare management software. Run daily operations, manage enrollment and billing, communicate with families, and keep essential records in one place. Add Hazel for AI front-desk support, or use Hazel on its own.

🍎 Food Program helps you manage meal counts, enrollment, and CACFP claims.

🎓 Campus is coming soon to support your team’s learning and keep training certificates organized.

Swipe for a closer look, then bring your questions to Booth 15! Danny and Danielle will be ready to help you explore the KidKare solutions that fit your center.

📍 Arlington, Texas
📅 October 7–10
👋 Booth 15

09/22/2026

🍂 Fall officially starts today.

Which means apples, pears, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, carrots, and beets are coming into season — and nearly all of it is CACFP-creditable.

No menu overhaul needed. A few swaps do it:
🍉 ➡️ 🍎 Watermelon → sliced apples or pears
🥒 ➡️ 🍠 Cucumber → roasted sweet potato
🥒 ➡️ 🎃 Zucchini → butternut squash

We've got recipes for breakfast, lunch, supper, and snack — with crediting already worked out 👇

https://www.kidkare.com/cacfp-fall-recipes/

Fall brings some of the best produce of the year — and most of it is CACFP-creditable. Apples, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pumpkin, pears, carrots, and beets are all in season, affordable, and easy to work into your existing menus. Whether you're planning breakfast, lunch, supper, or snack, ...

09/15/2026

🥣 IT'S TONIGHT! Teach Me Tuesday is back!

Ever stood in the kitchen wondering if that cereal box actually counts? Let's clear it up — once and for all.

CACFP Meal Pattern: A Deep Dive into Portions and WGR
📅 TONIGHT — Tuesday, September 15
🕖 7:00 PM CT

We're breaking down the meal pattern piece by piece:

✅ Age-appropriate portion sizes for every component
✅ The whole grain-rich requirement — decoded
✅ How to spot creditable vs. non-creditable foods
✅ The most common mistakes that show up at review

Whether you're brand new to CACFP or you've been claiming meals for years — this one's for you.

🎓 Attend live and earn a certificate of completion!
📹 Can't make it tonight? Register and we'll send you the recording!

Sign up now — it's free 👇
https://www.kidkare.com/resource-hub/cacfp-meal-pattern/

09/10/2026

📸 A few favorite moments from Nashville!

We had the best time at Our Daily Bread CACFP's Child Care & Development Conference last month. It was their first one back since COVID, and the turnout was amazing. The room was full of providers ready to learn and connect. 💛

Thank you to the Our Daily Bread CACFP team for bringing Tennessee and Kentucky's childcare community back together.

Happy 30 years! 🎉

09/08/2026

🌎 Food is one of the most natural ways to introduce culture to little ones.

Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15 – Oct 15) is a chance to honor the families you serve — through the meals you already make, and the stories, music, and art you already share.

We put together:
🍛 USDA-standardized recipes with crediting already calculated
🎨 Activity ideas beyond the menu
🗓️ Key dates, including Farm to CACFP Week

Free resources, all in one place 👇

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with USDA-standardized CACFP recipes — crediting already calculated. Plus activity ideas and free resources.

09/02/2026

New Mexico, thank you! 🌵

We had the best time at the New Mexico Child Care & Education Association (NMCCEA) conference alongside our friends at La Esperanza.

Our booth stayed busy across both days, and we loved hearing directly from providers and center directors about what their days actually look like — the paperwork, the food program, the juggling. 💛

Want to see what KidKare could look like for your program? Drop us a comment or reach out anytime. 👇

08/17/2026

Sponsoring organizations: CACFP software is an allowable administrative cost. If it's on the table for FY2027, this is the budget window to plan for it. 🗓️

✅ KidKare is a 100% Food Program–allowable expense — used exclusively for CACFP.

For a sponsorship managing multiple sites, that means:

🗂️ Core CACFP operations in one place — food lists, menus, enrollment records, receipt and expense verification, labor tracking, and claims processing. Not spreadsheets, paper, and inboxes.

🛡️ 250+ edit checks on claims, flagging issues at the site level before they reach your office or the state.

📊 300+ reports across every site — meal counts, attendance, claims history, participation trends. The foundation of accurate revenue projections at budget time.

🚗 Monitors complete site reviews up to 60% faster, with documentation already organized.

🔎 Beacon brings claim issues and reimbursement at risk into one place, so your organization can act before claim time rather than after.

30+ years in CACFP. 85,000+ users across all 50 states. 🇺🇸

📅 15-minute discovery call to see whether KidKare fits how your sponsorship runs:
https://www.kidkare.com/sponsors/

🔗 Full budget article: https://www.kidkare.com/preparing-your-cacfp-budget-for-fy2027/

Your organization's FY2027 CACFP budget is due before October 1. Here's what's changed — updated reimbursement rates, participation growth, state-level funding, and a checklist to get your submission ready.

08/10/2026

💛 Running a childcare program takes heart. It also takes funding.

Maybe you've never written a grant. Maybe you applied and didn't get the news you hoped for. Either way, we've got you tomorrow night.

✅ Finding opportunities you actually qualify for
✅ Writing a proposal that gets read
✅ Making your program stand out

📅 August 11 | 🕖 7:00 PM CST | 🎓 Free certificate for attendees

Register 👉 kidkare.com/resource-hub/grant-writing-for-childcare-providers/

08/03/2026

🍼 Can you claim a meal if the parent sends the breastmilk?

Yes — and there are a few more infant feeding rules worth knowing.

August is National Breastfeeding Month. Here's the full breakdown 👇
https://www.kidkare.com/cacfp-and-infant-feeding/

August is National Breastfeeding Month. Learn how CACFP supports breastfeeding in childcare — including infant meal pattern requirements, breastmilk handling, and how providers can create a breastfeeding-friendly environment.