Childcare and the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) community are on the brink of collapse and facing imminent threat of shutting down.

AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, July 22, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Over 1,200 nationwide survey respondents confirmed what many of us already knew: COVID-19 has impacted all CACFP operators and child care businesses with severe financial challenges.

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Efforts of Congress and the USDA in support of feeding children in ensuring that waivers were made available have been an important tool in response to the pandemic. However, CACFP operators are in overwhelming need of direct and significant financial aid outside of current program funding.

To date, over 133,633 letters have been sent by Americans across the country pleading with Congress, President Trump and the USDA for immediate action.

On May 12, Rep. David Trone (MD) introduced a bill to save this essential and critical infrastructure, Coronavirus Emergency Child and Adult Care Food Program Act, which was included in the HEROES act. While the House passed that emergency aid funding bill, the Senate has yet to move forward. Meanwhile, small businesses such as child and adult care providers and centers and sponsoring organizations can’t keep up the economic strain.

“After 46 years in business, we gave up our Center Contracts with the State. Financially, we could not continue to operate. We have staff who have been with us for over 20/25+ years. This has been heartbreaking.”

“I am the owner of a child care center that my mother opened years ago. We worked very hard at keeping our Pre-School open through all the good and bad years. We survived the cat 5 Hurricane Michael which destroyed our city and we were back open within 4 weeks. But, I don't believe we will survive COVID-19 crisis.

Our enrollment is at 41, we are licensed for 99. We only closed for 2 weeks so that we would be available for our community during the COVID-19 disaster. I already have 4 loans to repay from Hurricane Michael. I've cashed in some of my retirement and borrowed off my life insurance. I now have an additional loan with SBA and PPP Loan for the COVID-19 disaster. I will borrow off my life insurance again very soon, just to stay open. Thank You for reading our story, I just wanted someone to hear that we have put up a good fight to stay open after over 45 years, but I don't think we'll win this fight! The economic disaster is just too high.”

Child and adult care workers are essential employees and vital to a strong America. These are just two of the many stories of the devastating financial impact that COVID-19 has had on more than 200,000 CACFP organizations trying to make ends meet.

Since 1986, the National CACFP Sponsors Association (NCA) is the leading national organization for sponsors who administer the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). It provides education and support to thousands of members in the CACFP community and in particular to sponsors of all sizes from across the country. CACFP strives to improve communication between families, caregivers, sponsors and their supervising government agencies.

Lisa Mack
National CACFP Sponsors Association
+1 512-688-9356
email us here