The Plan to End Childhood Hunger

Ensure access to balanced, nutritious diets for all pregnant women and preschool children

Good childhood nutrition starts with good prenatal nutrition, and continues through the preschool years. Hunger can be devastating for children during the most important period of their physical and mental development (birth to age three). Help is available through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which provides funds to Head Start programs, child-care centers, and family day-care homes for serving meals to low-income children.

WIC is a significant source of nutritious diets for half of America’s pregnant women, nearly half of its infants, and millions of pre-school kids. It has a substantial ripple effect: WIC participants are more likely to receive prenatal care, and are less likely to experience low birth weights, fetal mortality, anemia, and childhood obesity. Why? Because WIC also provides nutrition education, referrals to health care services, and coupons for foods like fortified cereal, formula, cheese, beans, fruits, and vegetables that pregnant women and preschool children need for healthy growth.

Helping child development centers and family child care homes enroll in CACFP can make a significant difference-- both for the nutrition of the children and the financial security of the centers and homes. A recent study showed children attending child care sites that participate in CACFP get more key nutrients, far more servings of milk and vegetables, fewer servings of fats and sweets, and are ill less often.

In mid-2007, funding from Sodexho and collaboration with the D.C. Department of Health, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and others helped us launch an exciting initiative to increase participation in WIC and CACFP. In the first year, participation in the District’s WIC program grew by 10 percent and 11 new child development centers enrolled in CACFP.

With the continued support of Sodexho, we will expand these programs to reach everyone in the District who needs them.

Since 2006 we have:

• Launched a targeted campaign with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to educate eligible child and family care providers about available funding to feed children in their care.
• Partnered with key District departments and agencies involved in child care to identify opportunities for cross-agency collaboration on promoting nutrition.
• Spearheaded bi-monthly meetings of the Child and Adult Food Program Collaborative.
• Launched Share Our Strength’s nutrition education program at family day care homes.
• Improved outreach efforts and increased cross-agency collaboration to promote the WIC program.
• Conducted WIC outreach at numerous community organizations.
• Created a WIC referral guide and other WIC outreach materials.
• Encouraged the Department of Health to create a WIC Advisory Council to promote WIC and ensure a smooth implementation of the new WIC food package.

2009-2010 Goals:

Increase WIC participation in the District by 3 percent each year. This increase will bring an estimated $382,200 of federal funds into the District each year to improve the diets and development of prenatal pregnant women and preschool children in low-income communities.

Enroll six to 10 new centers into CACFP each year. With an average enrollment of 50 children per center, this increase will bring $250,000 – $421,200 in federal funds into the District each year to feed low-income children.

Enroll five new family child development providers in CACFP each year. (This increase will bring an estimated $37,000 of federal funds into the District each year to feed low-income children.)

2009-2010 Action Plan:

• Continue to partner with the WIC agency on strategies to enroll eligible District residents.
• Intensify collaborations with other District agencies that interact with populations likely to be WIC-eligible, particularly working families.
• Conduct outreach to likely WIC-eligible populations.
• Support the WIC agency to improve families’ access to the program and food choices from the new food package.
• Continue to partner with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education on ways to promote CACFP’s improvements to the D.C. child care community.
• Continue providing one-on-one help to child care centers and family day care homes to successfully complete CACFP applications and reporting requirements.
• Urge the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to sponsor small child development centers.
• Assess use of federal nutrition programs and age-appropriate serving models for “Pre-K for All”.
• Analyze Family Day Care Homes sponsors’ capacity to enroll new CACFP participants.

Measures of Success

• Increase WIC participation in the District by 490 women, infants, and children each year. This increase will bring an estimated $382,200 of federal funds into the District each year to improve the diets and development of prenatal pregnant women and preschool children in low-income communities.
• Enroll six to 10* new centers into CACFP each year. With an average enrollment of 50 children per center, this increase will bring $250,000 – $421,200 in federal funds into the District each year to feed low-income children.
• Enroll five new family child development providers in CACFP each year.
• * This increase will bring an estimated $37,000 of federal funds into the District each year to feed low-income children.