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.

Families face many challenges when seeking child care—is it affordable and accessible, does it meet the child’s needs, and does the child care provider or center meet certain standards and requirements? Now let’s think about the military family, who faces additional obstacles. According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), active-duty military personnel move an average of once every two to three years. And these moves are not trivial, often long distance or to foreign countries. This results in children changing schools and child care providers frequently. In addition, the DoD reports that roughly 70% of military families do not live on base, making access to military-funded child care even more limited.

On Wednesday April 6, hundreds of advocates for child care stormed the Hill to represent the millions of people across this country who need quality, affordable child care. This was a part of Child Care Aware® of America's national 2016 Symposium. Attendees were fired up in the morning by former Texas state Senator Wendy Davis, who gave an impassioned speech and opportunity to walk in her shoes as a young mother in poverty who wouldn’t have risen to where she is today without access to quality child care.

Former Texas state Senator Wendy Davis kicked off the Child Care Aware of America Day on the Hill! (Photo by Steve Barrett.)

We were excited to have more than 350 attendees join us for this year’s biennial Child Care Aware® of America 2016 Symposium on April 4-6 in Washington, D.C. Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies and early care professionals from various disciplines and settings joined us from across the nation to celebrate milestones, collaborate for results, and advocate for a high quality, affordable child care system.

Arlington, VA – Child Care Aware^® of America (CCAoA), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), National Head Start Association (NHSA), and National Indian Child Care Association (NICCA) would like to congratulate Tarra Stangl and the staff at The Growing Patch in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They have been named Provider of the Month for March 2016.