CACFP (Child and Adult Care Food Program) is a federal nutrition program that provides reimbursements to childcare centers for meals and snacks served to eligible children. Famly’s CACFP reporting tools help you track meal counts, manage eligibility categories, and generate the documentation you need for your monthly reimbursement claim.
Child Roster
Before generating reports, make sure each child has the correct CACFP eligibility category assigned. You can set this up in the Child roster tab by going to Reports in your sidebar → All reports → Meal Reporting for CACFP.
Each child should be assigned one of the following categories:
Free
Reduced
Paid
These categories determine how meals are counted in your monthly claim. They’re valid for up to 12 months and should be renewed at least once a year.
💡 When you update a child’s eligibility category, the change takes effect from the first of the previous month. For example, if you make a change on March 6th, the child will appear under their new category in reports from February 1st onwards
Meal Totals Report
The Meal totals tab in the Meal reporting for CACFP report is the core document you’ll use for your monthly CACFP reimbursement claim. It shows how many meals were served, broken down by eligibility category and meal type, along with participation and attendance numbers.
The report applies CACFP claim rules automatically, including a maximum of one meal per category per child per day, and no more than two meals and one snack, or one meal and two snacks, per child per day. It also shows the expected reimbursement amount for the period. You can cover any period up to 62 days.
☝️ Meal counts show a maximum of one meal type per day per child. If a staff member logs multiple of the same meal type in a day, only one will be counted
Meal Log
Click any number in the report to see the child-level detail behind it in the Meal Log, including exactly which meals each child received on which days and their eligibility category. From there, you can filter, print, or download the data as a CSV. This is the detail you’ll need on file for audits and sponsor reviews.
How to Get Started
To set up your meal settings, go to Settings → Meals → Plans.
Set up meal types
Add your meal types, such as Breakfast, Lunch, or Snack. For each meal type, you can set a serving time, which will show up in your meal plan and in CACFP reports.
Each meal type also has a CACFP claim category dropdown. Select the category that applies:
Not claimed
Breakfast
Lunch
Supper
AM Snack
PM Snack
CACFP reimbursement rates
This is where you enter what you’re reimbursed per meal, broken down by eligibility category. Copy these figures from your state agency’s rate notice. Rates change every July 1, so make sure to update them each year.
For each program year, set a date range and enter the reimbursement amount for:
Free
Reduced
Paid
💡 Children with no eligibility category assigned will be claimed at the Paid rate. To claim at the Free or Reduced rate, set the correct category for each family in the Child Roster
Set up your meal plan
Once you’ve added your meal types, you’re ready to start building your menu. Go to Home → Meal plans in your sidebar and click Create meal plan. If you’ve added serving times to your meal types, these will appear under the meal type name in the first column.
For more information about setting up meal plans, click here.
Recording a child’s meal
To record what a child ate:
Go to Home in your sidebar and click Overview
Click into the child’s room and select the child or children you’d like to log a meal for
In the Status section, click Meal
Choose the meal type, select what the child ate, and use the slider to indicate how much of the meal they had
☝️ Meals can be logged even if a child is not checked in. Checked out children won’t show on the list unless staff enable the Show checked out children toggle