Introducing healthy, delicious, local food benefits children, early learning programs, and farmers. Early learning programs can purchase directly from a producer, order from a distributor, purchase local products from a grocery store or co-op, or buy products from food hubs or farmers’ markets. Programs may also choose to grow their own food in a garden and use produce in meals or for education.
Local Procurement Resources
- Farm to Early Care and Education Local Food Purchasing Resources National Farm to School Network’s local food purchasing resource spreadsheet
- WSDA Procurement Webpage Contains resources to help with formal procurement, including solicitation templates, an example purchase order agreement, and fresh sheet ordering tools
- Local Food Purchasing Guide by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems
- Farm to Early Childhood Programs: A Step-By-Step Guide This guide is full of useful tools to help you start procuring local foods. Explore the menu analysis worksheet to help you identify simple, sustainable areas in your current menu planning to substitute or add local foods
- Local Procurement Guide for child care centers and family home programs by the National Farm to School Network. Also available in Spanish
- North Carolina Fresh Produce Purchasing and Prep Guides Tool for food purchasing and preparation amounts by serving
- From Pecks to Pounds This resource from the Maryland department of agriculture translates farm measurements to pounds to assist with your purchasing
- Washington Food & Farm Finder tool to search for local farms
- WSDA Farm to School Finding Farms resources to help find local farms
- Celebrating Seasonality Recipe Guide Rooted and Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems’ guide featuring one breakfast, lunch, and snack recipe for each of the four seasons. All recipes are scaled for 8 and 25 servings, include serving sizes for different age groups, and note CACFP crediting information. Also available in Spanish
- Team Nutrition Multicultural Childcare Recipes 40 recipes from different cultures and regions available in English and Spanish
- Washington Grown Food and Recipe Kit Contains general information, activities, promotion and education materials, tools, recipes, and nutrition facts for over 40 Washington grown products
- Quick Bites: Culinary Training Videos From the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Cooking Up Healthy Options with Plants (CHOP) Program. These training videos teach basic knife skills and culinary techniques
- Healthy Cooking in the CACFP with Chef Asata Reid This video series by the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning Nutrition Services Division showcases a variety of topics including Knife Skills, CACFP Snacks, Enhancing Meal Appeal, Using Seasonal Produce, and Using Spices and Herbs. These can be used during training sessions and in professional development meetings.
- Washington Administrative Code 110-300-0196 Outlines guidelines for using your garden’s harvest in school meals and snacks
Aligning Farm to ECE with CACFP
- Local Foods in CACFP Policy Memo Encourages use of local food to CACFP operations with answers to common questions
- CACFP meal pattern and nutrition standards Learn more about CACFP meal pattern standards as well as guidance and resources
- USDA’s Farm to Preschool Helpful resources related to CACFP in Farm to ECE programs
- Local Food Purchasing Toolbox for CACFP Providers Provides step-by-step instructions for purchasing from a variety of local food sources. A Spanish version intended for Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) programs can be found here
- Indigenous Foods in Early Care and Education National Farm to School Network’s webinar, including indigenous foods in CACFP
- USDA CACFP Best Practices Standards, guidance, and technical assistance related to CACFP