Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. It is 8.15. I'm joined by Julie Champion from Child and Family Resources. Julie, good morning. How are you this morning?
Julie Champion: Good morning. I'm good, Paul. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing well, doing well. And I know we want to center the conversation this morning around something called the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Can you give us the 411 on what this program is?
Julie Champion: I sure can. The program is offered by New York State Department of Health, who receives funding from the federal government to support child care programs, whether it's centers, home-based programs, after-school programs, as well as community-based adult daycare centers, as well as homeless shelters. And what it does is it supports some of the costs of food in order to prepare and serve participants healthy meals while they're in any of these programs. And Child and Family Resources is a sponsor for CACFP for family-based child care programs in Ontario, Seneca, and Yates counties.
Paul Szmal: Okay, so how does this program get implemented if somebody, well, first off, are there any requirements or any minimum income, that sort of thing, that need to be worried about for somebody to partake in the program?
Julie Champion: Well, typically anyone who's a registered or licensed family daycare home can participate. There is an income criteria, but it basically gives you the outline of you get this rate at this income and a higher rate if you're lower income. And much of the income can also be determined by census data. It can be determined by school district data. And as well, if a provider has their own children in care, the provider's own income could help support the need for the food program participation.
Paul Szmal: So how does this program work if somebody's enrolled in it? What happens once they're enrolled?
Julie Champion: Well, once someone is enrolled and they sign up through us, at the first 28 days, we would go out and help them get through the first months of menus and planning. And typically what happens is they track the attendance for every meal. So all the children in their care who are present for a meal would be noted on attendance record keeping forms. And we talk to them also about healthy meal planning and give them recipes and ideas for that. And at the end of each month, they submit what we call a claim that demonstrates their attendance in meals served. And then through our program, we process those claims and we get the money from New York State Department of Health and then turn that money over, reimburse the program for all of those meals served.
Paul Szmal: So this almost works like the way some grant programs work.
Julie Champion: It does in that it's reimbursement, a reimbursement program. Now, I'll be honest, with the way food costs nowadays, there's no way this covers the whole cost of the food served in a program, but it does offset the cost. We do have several programs. Let's take it, for example, a family-based program. They typically would have six children during the day and maybe two school-agers that come before or after school. So if those children are coming regularly and they're eating breakfast, lunch, and maybe an afternoon snack, the average reimbursement check for those programs is about four to $500. And the nice thing about that is it does help with cash flow in the program. So they can buy more groceries. But it's also, it's considered income. So programs would count that as income, but all of their expenses for their food are also considered a business expense for tax purposes. So bottom line, it helps support the program getting the nutritious food for children, serving it, giving them ideas and recipes, and really promotes healthy children.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Julie Champion from Child and Family Resources this morning about the Child and Adult Care Food Program that is available. And we should emphasize here that, as you were saying, Julie, this is not just for families, but this can be for people who provide care for other children.
Julie Champion: Exactly. You have to be a registered or licensed family-based program or a child care center or a school-age program in order to participate. And you mentioned that Child and Family Resources is a sponsor of this. Are there other sponsors, other organizations that are working with this program?
Paul Szmal: For child care centers, they work directly with the Department of Health, both the school-age centers and the licensed daycare centers. We are the only sponsor in our three counties. Typically, the state likes to work with one sponsor per area. But across New York State, there are many different sponsors for the other counties. And typically, it would be a child care resource and referral agency like ours who are often sponsors for home-based programs.
Julie Champion: If there was something you could tell someone who is potentially thinking about joining the program to convince them why this program is a good thing, what would your elevator speech be?
Paul Szmal: I think it would be, do you need some help? Thinking of great meals that kids will want to eat that are healthy and nutritious so that you can help support them grow even more. And I think that families who may not be able to afford some of the healthy foods while their children are in a child care program, they're getting them there. So it's really a supportive way to help children grow. And really, that's what we're in our business for, is to help children grow and be successful and thrive.
Julie Champion: And by the way, to throw out a stat here, in 2022, New York received over $192 million in federal USDA funds for this particular program. So it not only has help coming from the state, but it has help coming from the federal level too.
Paul Szmal: It does. It's a USDA federal program. And just to give you an idea for our purposes, just with the family-based programs, we bring in about $240,000 a year for family-based programs that we pass through to them as part of this.
Julie Champion: And I'm looking at the program requirements here, and it says you must have children enrolled in your program and be a registered family child care provider or licensed group family provider. Legally exempt providers caring for children receiving child care subsidies are also eligible to participate. And again, this is a reimbursement program, Julie. So you're getting the guidance and the information, and then you're getting a little bit of money back for the money that you've spent on the meals that you're providing for the children.
Paul Szmal: That is it. I think you nailed it there. And now, if people want to join this program, what's the easiest way for them to find the information and get on board?
Julie Champion: The easiest way is to contact either Amanda Hines or Amanda Miller in our Penn Yen office. And that phone number is 315-536-1134. There is a sign-on process. Obviously, there's going to be paperwork. It's a program from the state and the feds. And they'll set that up. They'll set up a time to come visit the program, talk to them about how it works, show them the amazing electronic version called Kid Care that we use to track all of the attendance in the menus.
Paul Szmal: Oh, there you go. Yeah.
Julie Champion: At the end of the month, all they do is click a button. After they've entered it, just click a button and it sends the claim to us.
Paul Szmal: That makes it nice and easy.
Julie Champion: Yes, much easier than the numerous papers that we used to shuffle around.
Paul Szmal: Okay. Julie, thank you so much for the information this morning. We appreciate it as always.
Julie Champion: Thank you, Paul. We'll see you next month.
Paul Szmal: All righty. It is 824 on FLX Morning.
