--- title: "Set up CACFP claiming" description: "Get your daycare ready for CACFP — food library components, child eligibility tiers, daily logging discipline, and the monthly claim workflow." type: guide updated: 2026-08-26 canonical_url: https://help.nestlicare.com/owners/education/set-up-cacfp roles: ["super_admin", "center_admin"] platforms: [web] --- The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) reimburses qualifying daycares for meals served to children, at rates that depend on each child's household income tier. NestliCare tracks everything a monthly claim needs — this guide is the one-time setup and the monthly rhythm. If you just want the report itself, see [Run the CACFP meals report](/owners/reports/run-the-cacfp-meals-report). This page is how to make that report **right**. **Using My Food Program for claims?** Then your sponsor manages income eligibility and the monthly claim there, and you do not need to enter eligibility tiers in NestliCare at all. Connect the sync instead: [Connect My Food Program](/owners/education/my-food-program-integration). This guide is for programs that run their CACFP counts in NestliCare directly. ## Before you start - You've enrolled in CACFP through your state agency or a sponsor. NestliCare produces the counts you claim with; the sponsor relationship is yours. - CACFP features show for US organizations. If you don't see the CACFP tab under **Organization → Meals**, check that your organization's country is set to United States in Settings. ## One-time setup ### 1. Give your food library CACFP components Under **Organization → Meals → Library**, every food carries a CACFP component: grain, meat/meat alternate, vegetable, fruit, or milk. The starter library comes tagged; tag any foods you add yourself. This matters twice: - **Menu planning** — the Plans tab shows live component coverage per meal, so a lunch missing its vegetable is visible while you're planning it, not at review. - **Logged-meal compliance** — when teachers log meals, NestliCare matches the foods against your library to judge the meal against the federal USDA pattern. Meals made of foods that aren't in your library can't be judged and show as "unknown" — so a well-tagged library is what makes your compliance numbers meaningful. The pattern check is the **federal base pattern (ages 1–12)**. Infant menus and state-specific additions aren't validated — your sponsor's rules govern there. ### 2. Set each child's eligibility tier Reimbursement rates differ by tier: **Free**, **Reduced**, or **Paid**, based on the household income eligibility form the family files each year. Set the tier on each child from their profile: on the **Details** tab, click **Edit** in the **About** section. The eligibility form's expiry date is set there too. Two behaviors to know: - **Unset tier counts as Paid** — the lowest rate. The claim report tells you how many meals were claimed at Paid only because the tier was never set, so missing setup costs you visibly, not silently. - **Expiry reminders** — NestliCare reminds you before eligibility forms lapse so re-certification doesn't fall through the cracks. Children not participating at all can be marked **not enrolled** in CACFP — their meals are excluded from claims entirely. ## The daily rhythm Nothing here is CACFP-specific work — the claim is a by-product of normal logging done well: 1. **Check children in and out.** The USDA rule is absolute: no attendance that day, no claim. NestliCare enforces it automatically — meals logged for a child with no check-in that day are excluded from the claim and itemized so you can fix genuine misses. 2. **Log meals with actual foods.** "Lunch" with no foods listed can't demonstrate a pattern. Teachers pick foods from the library in the app; per-child portions ride along. 3. **Mark the exceptional meal non-claimable.** A birthday cupcake run isn't a claim. The **Records** tab has a per-meal Claimable toggle. ## The monthly claim Most states want claims by the 10th. Under **Organization → Meals → CACFP**: 1. **Pre-Claim Review first.** The itemized list of everything that would reduce or endanger the claim — meals without attendance, duplicate logs, children over the daily meal limit, attended-but-unfed days, missing checkouts, unset eligibility — each dated and named so an admin can fix real errors before claiming. 2. **Claim Summary.** The meal-type × tier matrix your claim form wants, with CSV export. NestliCare applies the USDA claim rules for you: one claim per meal type per child per day, and the daily cap of 2 meals + 1 snack (or 1 meal + 2 snacks) per child. 3. **Claimed Meals by Day** for your records. The per-child, per-day export is what you hand a reviewer at audit time — keep it with the month's claim. 4. **Menu Record** is the contents of each meal. One row per day and meal with the foods served under Milk, Meat / Meat Alternate, Grains, Vegetables, and Fruits, the rooms it was served in, how many children ate, and whether it met the federal meal pattern. **Export menu record CSV** gives your sponsor the menu record most of them require alongside the claim. Foods that are not in your library show under Other, because NestliCare cannot tell which component they are. The hygiene notes under the claim matrix tell you what was excluded and why, plus how many claimed meals didn't meet the federal meal pattern per your food library. Pattern problems don't block the claim — that conversation is between you and your sponsor — but you want to see them before your reviewer does. ## What the meal pattern check looks for NestliCare grades each meal against the federal child meal pattern (7 CFR 226.20) using the components in your food library: - **Breakfast**: milk, a fruit or vegetable, and a grain. Meat or a meat alternate (eggs, cheese, yogurt) may stand in for the grain up to three times a week. The Menu Record marks those breakfasts and notes any week that goes past three. - **Lunch and supper**: milk, meat or meat alternate, vegetable, fruit, and grain. A second, different vegetable may stand in for the fruit. - **Snacks**: any two of the five components, but juice and milk together count as one. Milk plus apple juice is not a reimbursable snack; add a grain, a meat alternate, or a whole fruit or vegetable. - **Juice** may meet the fruit or vegetable requirement at only one meal or snack per day. The Menu Record notes days where juice appears at more than one. - **Infants** under 12 months follow the separate infant meal pattern, so a sitting where only infants ate is not graded. Foods that are not in your library have no component, so they show under **Other** and the meal is graded **Unknown** rather than failed. Keep the library complete and the grades stay meaningful. ## Family child care homes Sponsors reimburse homes by home tier (Tier I or Tier II), not by each child's income tier. File the **Total** column of the claim summary and the per-day counts; the Free / Reduced / Paid split matters only for a Tier II home claiming income-eligible children. Meals served to the provider's own children are reimbursable only when at least one other enrolled child is present at the meal and the household is income-eligible. Pre-Claim Review flags children whose parent is on staff so you can check that rule before filing. ## Related - [Run the CACFP meals report](/owners/reports/run-the-cacfp-meals-report) - [Meals, menus, and CACFP](/owners/education/meal-menus-and-logging)