Menus and Variety

Plan your menu ahead of time to ensure nutritional quality and variety.

Planning menus in advance can help you promote balanced, nutritious meals and snacks over the course of a week. Making sure you include a variety of foods can also help children get different nutrients and try new foods. If you plan for foods that are seasonally available, this can also help you save money. Below you will find resources that can help you with menu planning.

Best Practices

The resources on this page can help child care programs reach all of the following best practices:

  • “Include a combination of new and familiar foods on weekly menus.”
  • “Include foods from a variety of cultures on weekly menus.”
  • “Use a cycle menu of 3 weeks or greater that changes with the seasons.”

Resources for menu planning:  

  • CACFP 6-Week Sample Menu

Summary: 6-week sample menu cycle, fulfilling CACFP regulations.
Source: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Access:https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/mde/2018/08/06/CACFP_6Week_Sample_Menu.pdf?rev=ccebb38f62a4499098fe073721366e0b

  • CACFP Training Tools

Summary: Training materials for the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Includes menu planners for breakfast, snack, infants, and toddlers.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service
Access: https://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/cacfp/trainers-tools

  • Child Nutrition Recipe Box

Summary: USDA standardized recipes for child nutrition.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service
Access: https://theicn.org/cnrb/

  • Education and Training Resources

Summary: In-person, virtual, and on-demand training courses and educational material related to CACFP meal patterns are available for professional development credit. Registration is free.
Source: Institute of Child Nutrition
Access: https://theicn.org/cacfp/

  • Farm to School Directory

Summary: This search tool allows child care providers to search for local produce suppliers.
Source: Taste the Local Difference
Access: https://www.localdifference.org/find-food-farms/farm-to-school-directory/

  • Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs

Summary: This Food Buying Guide contains all of the current information in one place and is available in three formats: an interactive web-based tool, a mobile app, or a printable document. It makes it easy to search and navigate food lists for programs and buy the right amount of food. It also determines the specific contribution each food makes toward the meal pattern requirements. In both the web-based tool and the mobile app, a profile can be created to save food items to a favorites list.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture
Access: https://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/fbg

  • Go Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC) Bilingual Self-Assessments

Summary: Contacting a consultant and completing the online version of the Go NAPSACC assessments opens up a suite of planning, learning, and implementation tools to understand further what the health best practices are and how to reach them at your child care.
Source: Go Nutritional and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care (Go NAPSACC)
Access: https://gonapsacc.org/our-focus-areas

  • Local Food for Little Eaters - A Purchasing Toolbox for the Child & Adult Care Food Program

Summary: This toolkit is designed to help early care providers purchase local food for their programs. It gives step-by-step instructions for purchasing from a variety of local food sources. The instructions include successful strategies and examples of how early childhood programs nationwide are purchasing local food.
Source: Michigan State University - Center for Regional Food Systems
Access: https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/local-food-for-little-eaters

  • Michigan Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) Network

Summary: This search tool allows child care providers to search for local produce suppliers.
Source: Michigan CSA Network
Access: https://www.michigancsanetwork.org/

  • Model Policies for Creating a Healthy Nutrition and Physical Activity Environment in Child Care Settings

Summary: This nutrition toolkit describes model policies and provides tips to on how to fulfill them.
Source: Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Bureau of Community Food and Nutrition Assistance
Access: https://health.mo.gov/living/dnhs_pdfs/ChildCareModelPolicies.pdf

  • Nutrition and Wellness Tips for Young Children

Summary: Collection of tip sheets for nutrition and physical activity. Each tip sheet focuses on a specific topic and includes a practical application section to help apply the tips to a child care program for children ages 2 through 5 years old. See pages 5-49.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service
Access: https://www.yoursforchildren.com/nutrition-resources/TeamNutrition/Nutrition%20&%20Wellness%20Tips%20for%20Young%20Children%20--%20English.pdf

  • Seasonal Produce Guide

Summary: See what is available in spring, summer, fall, and winter. Clicking on each item will take you to further information and educational resources about it.
Source: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Education, United States Department of Agriculture
Access: https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/resources/nutrition-education-materials/seasonal-produce-guide

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