Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act of 2025
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Landsman (for himself, Ms. Bonamici, Ms. Balint, Ms. Salinas, …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Child Care Nutrition Enhancement Act of 2025 increases the amount of money that child care facilities receive from the federal government for every meal and snack they serve to children and adults in their care. Specifically, it adds 10 cents per meal or snack to existing reimbursement rates under the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), a program that helps day care centers, family day care homes, and adult day care centers afford nutritious meals for those they serve.
Who Benefits and How
Child care centers, family day care homes, and adult day care facilities that participate in CACFP will benefit directly from higher federal reimbursement payments—receiving an extra 10 cents for every breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack they serve. This additional funding can help these providers improve meal quality, reduce their out-of-pocket food costs, or offset rising food prices. Food service companies that supply meals or ingredients to these facilities may also see increased business as providers have more resources to spend on food.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal taxpayers will shoulder the cost of this increase, as it requires additional federal appropriations to fund the higher reimbursement rates across all participating CACFP facilities nationwide. The USDA's Food and Nutrition Service will need to implement and administer the new payment structure, creating some additional administrative work. Because CACFP serves millions of meals annually, even a 10-cent increase per meal represents a significant increase in federal spending.
Key Provisions
- Adds 10 cents to the federal reimbursement rate for every meal and snack served under CACFP, effective the first day of the first month after the bill is enacted
- Makes this increase subject to annual adjustments based on inflation (Section 11(a) of the National School Lunch Act)
- Fixes a typo in existing law, changing "consulation" to "consultation"
- Reorganizes how tier I family and group day care homes receive their reimbursements, ensuring the 10-cent increase applies to them as well
- Updates cross-references in the law to reflect the new reimbursement structure
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Increases reimbursement rates by 10 cents per meal/supplement under the child and adult care food program and makes technical corrections to the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Increase federal support for child nutrition programs by raising per-meal reimbursement rates, thereby reducing financial burden on child care providers and potentially improving meal quality"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Child care centers receiving CACFP reimbursements
- Family day care home providers participating in CACFP
- Adult day care centers serving meals under CACFP
- Children and adults receiving meals through CACFP
- Food service providers and suppliers to CACFP facilities
Likely Burden Bearers
- Federal taxpayers (increased appropriations required)
- USDA Food and Nutrition Service (administrative implementation)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The section that governs the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which provides reimbursements for meals and snacks served to children and adults in care settings
Day care homes in low-income areas or operated by low-income providers that receive higher reimbursement rates under CACFP
42 U.S.C. 1766 - Federal law governing the National School Lunch Program and related child nutrition programs including the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology