FP10 In-Home Childcare Providers Participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) Improve Knowledge and Nutritional Quality of Foods and Beverages Served with Nutrition Education Intervention

Objective To determine if a nutrition education intervention for in-home child care providers increased CACFP knowledge and menu adherence. Description Quasi-Experimental Study using the Healthier Childcare Environment Team Nutrition intervention group. Participants included 82 in-home child care providers from Michigan group and family day care home programs from 2016-2019. Evaluation A CACFP knowledge questionnaire and a weekly menu of foods and beverages served were collected pre and post intervention and compared with paired t-tests and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests. Menus were coded for CACFP nutrition standard compliance by nutrition professionals. After the six-month nutrition education intervention, childcare providers’ knowledge ( P  = .055) of CACFP nutrition standards and motivation to improve eating and offer healthy choices increased ( P  = .03) from pre to post assessment. Adherence to CACFP nutrition standards for breakfast and snacks on the menu increased significantly ( P Conclusions and Implications The results suggest that the Healthier Childcare Environment intervention improved the nutrition quality of foods being offered to children attending in-home childcare settings. Implementation of the Child and Adult Care Food Program nutrition standards may present challenges, especially for in home providers. Grant Year 2016