Finding Help, Finding Hope. That’s the theme of this year’s National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. Awareness Day was created to help focus the nation’s attention on the importance of children’s positive mental health and the essential role it plays in overall healthy development.

Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity for Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies—CCR&Rs as Community Resilience Hubs. This initiative, administered through CCAoA’s emergency preparedness team aims to increase the capabilities of communities working with child care centers and family child care providers in preparing, responding, and recovering from natural disasters and emergencies.

On Friday, April 22, 2016, the USDA announced that it has finalized meal pattern revisions to the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). This rule updates the meal pattern requirements to better align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which was required by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

National Infant Immunization Week (April 16-23) is an annual observance to highlight the importance of protecting infants from serious vaccine-preventable disease like whooping cough, measles, and influenza.

According to the Food Insecurity and Hunger in the U.S. report, released in February 2016 by the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) and Children’s Health Watch, food insecurity among immigrants, refugees, and asylees living in the United States is greater than for U.S. born children. It also describes research to support that the longer these families are in the U.S., though their food security may increase, their health declines with increased risk for obesity and diet-related diseases.