On July 8, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) published the “USDA’s Study of Nutrition and Activity in Child Care Settings II (SNACS II)” report. SNACS-II is the second study in the SNACS study series, which collects and analyzes data about CACFP child care providers, the children they care for, the meals and snacks they serve, the cost of producing those meals and snacks, and the physical activity opportunities they provide.
SNACS-II collected data from 2022-23. FNS uses the data to learn important information about CACFP, such as the nutrition of CACFP meals and snacks, and the healthfulness of children’s diets are on the days they do and do not attend child care. This study reviews CACFP early child care (infants – age 5 years), and CACFP before and afterschool meals (ages 6-12 years), using the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI) to assess how well program meals and children’s diets align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Study findings:
- When in the care of CACFP providers, children have better overall diets than on days they are not.
- The meals and snacks CACFP providers served in 2022-23 aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Furthermore, the HEI scores of CACFP meals and snacks were higher in SNACS-II (2022-23) than in SNACS-I (2016-17), showing improvement over time.
- Meal reimbursement rates covered providers’ food costs but fell below total meal costs for all meal types.
Read the full study here.