ChildCareGroup | Food & Nutrition: Meal Patterns

Children enrolled in our USDA Food Program receive two-thirds of their recommended nutritional daily allowances.


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The USDA Child And adult Care Food Program (CACFP) meal patterns are a guide to well-balanced meals.

The meal patterns allow for choices from a wide variety of foods and snacks. Within the meal patterns and in menu planning, providers should give consideration to religious, cultural, ethnic, and vegetarian eating preferences of children whenever possible in menu planning.

Infant (ages 0 to 1)

The following Infant Meal Pattern Chart is the format in which the federal government publishes the regulations for the infant portion of the CACFP.

Click on Infant Meal Pattern »

Non-Infant
(ages 1 through 12)

The meal pattern for young children (ages 1-12) is designed to provide approximately two-thirds of each child's recommended dietary allowance (RDA) as published by the National Academy of Sciences.

Click on Meal Patterns »