Family, Friend, & Neighbor Caregivers: Ideas for engaging and enrolling on the Food Program (CACFP)
- Samantha Marshall
- Sep 9
- 8 min read
It's Family, Friend, and Neighbor Appreciation Week, and the CACFP Roundtable is joining Home Grown and many other partner organizations in celebrating this crucial element of the child care and workforce infrastructure. I thought it would be fun to consider how we can further engage Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) Caregivers in the CACFP. In 2020, A Labor of Love: Family, friends and neighbors who care for young children was published. It is meant to be a messaging guide for organizations like the Roundtable and CACFP Sponsors to learn how to intrigue and then sustain a trusted relationship with FFN Caregivers. It is summarized here, and I tried to specifically connect some of the ideas to the CACFP. Let's talk, let's brainstorm - how do you think we can use these ideas to get FFN Caregivers excited about the CACFP and have long-term participation? Leave your thoughts in the comments or email me - samantha@cacfproundtable.org.
The Challenge
Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) Caregivers don’t often know about the Food Program, the benefits of being a part of the Food Program, that they can participate; if they get that far, they don’t know how to enroll (Marshall, 2021).
Additionally, it is often difficult for organizations and advocates to talk about the CACFP as a benefit without talking about the barriers to participation. CACFP Sponsors of Family Child Care Homes are more familiar working with licensed family child care providers who are establishing a business in their home and while the value of the services provided between the two groups is essential to their communities, the motivation, process, and procedures are different.
In general, reaching Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregivers with resources and benefits for caregiving can be difficult for a number of reasons. A Labor of Love, family, friends and neighbors who care for young children: A messaging guide for organizations, leaders and advocates suggests a number of reasons for this, which include (Labor of Love, 2020, p. 10 - 16):
Motivations are unique and not the same as other types of educators/caregivers
See themselves as giving back to the community or those they love
Growing as a professional in the workforce is not a motivation or priority
Becoming licensed is not a pathway most want or consider
Safety and protectiveness are key motivators
They value the special relationships they have with the children and families and supporting not only the child but the parent as well
Autonomy, Respect, Value, and Confidence are mindsets of FFN providers that programs and messaging need to consider
FFN caregivers are confident in their skills and want to be respected in their roles as caregivers. If they feel as though the program approach to help them is because they are unskilled or uneducated, trust could be eroded.
Inadequate messaging
Using language the target audience does not identify with, such as family, friend, and neighbor or caregivers or license-exempt. This diverse group of people sees themselves as tias, friends, grandmas, and madres.
Focusing on the benefits for only the child and not the adult.
Speaking to the needs of the parent and the non-parent caring for the children as if their needs are the same.
Using the language of the heart in materials and during programmatic activities
These are the key perspectives shared in focus groups by organizations and family, friend, and neighbor caregivers. Engaging FFN caregivers in programs is difficult and adding the complexities of the CACFP, it gets even harder. FFN caregivers often don’t recognize they can participate in the Food Program. Additionally, with the rigidity of the program, making it a sustainable experience is a challenge (Adams, G. et al., October 2023).
Connecting the Guide to CACFP
The Labor of Love guide has Five Points of Engagement: Consider, Trust, Try, Return, Promote. As we keep in mind the motivations and perspectives of family, friend, and neighbor caregivers, we will apply these Five Points of Engagement to CACFP outreach and participation for this unique and diverse population that is critical to our parent workforce, caregiver, and child development infrastructure.
Consider. The First Point of Engagement (Labor of Love, 2020 p. 19)
During this phase of engagement, the FFN caregiver is going to do a very quick assessment; they’ll skim a website, flyer, or social media and very quickly determine if the program is meant for them. The Labor of Love guide displays how FFN caregivers refer to themselves and it is not as a caregiver or FFN provider; they describe themselves in terms of what they do. They used words like help, friend, take care of children, care for children, educate, feed, and responsible.
How do we apply this to CACFP outreach and engagement?
Separate licensed family child care promotional materials and engagement from those targeted for FFN caregivers. Use phrases and terminology that they can see themselves or their care in.
Example for messaging: Making meals at home for your grandkids, nephews, or friends' kids while they're at work? The Food Program can help you pay for them. Contact xyz organization for more information.
Website: Create a separate website page speaking to the FFN providers. Maybe call it: Grandparents, Tias, Friends, and Neighbors. Target your messaging and avoid the pitfalls listed above.
Phrasing and Terminology: Use words like, payment instead of reimbursement or nutrition specialist instead of monitor, avoid phrases like meal service and say things like lunch and other meals. Avoid referencing a “business” and “pathway to licensing” and family child care, family friend and neighbor caregivers, providers, child care, FFN, license-exempt, home-based child care.
Trust. The Second Point of Engagement (Labor of Love, 2020 p. 20)
The next step is getting them to trust your organization and the program. This is best done through ambassadors, “and particularly through ambassadors who have an identity that aligns with their own” (Labor of Love, 2020 p. 20). This can be through messaging on the flyers, website, social media; sharing quotes, stories, lived experiences, and showing pictures that the FFN caregivers in the community can identify with. It can also be powerful for the ambassadors to talk to the FFN caregivers themselves, share about the experience, and guide them through what to expect as well as the benefits of the program.
How do we apply this to CACFP outreach and engagement?
There are several elements of the Food Program that can make FFN providers distrustful so trust building is a paramount part of initial and ongoing engagement. Sponsors could consider:
Trusted messenger: Providing a stipend to an existing FFN provider on their program to walk the potential provider through what to expect, what’s beneficial, and what might be challenging. Offering to help along the way if there are questions or concerns.
Trusted messenger: Sponsors could partner with an immigration specific organization to help them create messaging or be the trusted messenger about participating in the Food Program; alleviating fears of having a sponsor in their home, or providing the required documentation to operate the program, and support for families who might be uncomfortable filling out the required paperwork.
Using language that is true to regulation, compliance, and integrity, but more friendly. For example:
Nutrition Specialist instead of Monitor
Support Visits instead of Monitoring or Compliance Visits
Randomized Visits instead of Unannounced Visits
Shoot me a text when you leave your home during your meals so you get all of the money you deserve
Try. The Third Point of Engagement (Labor of Love, 2020 p. 21)
Needs to be met before an FFN caregiver will try a program include trust, safety, and convenience, as well as accessibility. Cost is also a factor. If they decide to give the Food Program a try, “it probably means that you have met some or all of their base needs around trust, safety and convenience (and cost)” (Labor of Love, 2020 p. 21).
Connecting Try to CACFP.
In the Food Program onboard timing, this part would be when a sponsor has gone out for the initial site visit and prior to the first claim. The sponsor has met the basic needs in order for the FFN caregiver to allow the sponsor in the home and learn about what they have to do to for their first meal reimbursement claim. It has been shared by sponsors that the claim after that first visit oftentimes doesn’t come with FFN caregivers (Adams, G. et al., October 2023). This first visit sets up the 4th point of engagement which is “return.” In order to get the FFN providers to Return - to submit that claim and do it consistently, the sponsor should continue to build that sense of trust and meet their basic needs. Some ways this could be done:
Ways to educate and talk about the program requirements: There are three visits our nutrition specialists will do each year. During these visits they will learn about your culture and meals. They will answer any questions you might have, make sure your paperwork is all up to date, and assist with the rules so that your payment is as much as it can possibly be. The visits will be random, and for two, we can’t tell you when we will be arriving, but you will be prepared because we’re going to work together to make sure you feel good about this.
Ways to educate and talk about the program requirements: One of the hard parts of being a grandma, tia, or friend on the Food Program is that you have to tell us when you are going to be gone during a lunch or snack - anytime you serve a meal. This can seem silly because the kids might want to go to the park or the mall or you have an appointment and take them with you and you forget to tell your nutrition specialist. It can be really easy though, send a quick text to your nutrition specialist letting them know you won’t be home during your mealtime.
Policy change considerations as a Sponsor: Licensed family child care providers often state one of the most difficult/frustrating parts of the Food Program is the deadline sponsors place in their software to track the menu and meal count by 11:59 p.m. the same day. If the provider does not do it by then, they don’t get to claim the meals served. Sponsors could consider changing this policy to within 48 hours.
Return. The Fourth Point of Engagement (Labor of Love, 2020 p. 22-23)
“At this point of engagement, program participants will be looking to see if the program is positive and creates a sense of belonging for themselves and the children they watch. This determination builds on their earlier assessment of trustworthiness…Our research shows that, given the challenges of caring for young children, adults are seeking this sort of collegiality and partnership. Importantly, part of what program prospects are considering is whether what is said matches what is shown…and if that matches their experience.”
In terms of CACFP, this would be repeated and consistent claiming. The sponsor can continue to build on what they did for the first 3 steps of engagement with the FFN providers, understanding this community is unique and diverse, and continued and successful claiming is going to be different than with a family child care provider who is running a business with multiple children and families. Consider:
engaging the trusted messenger after the FFN caregiver has had their initial visit with the monitor for a friendly interaction about what was learned and what the FFN caregiver should continue to do, and how to do it.
Building a community around FFN caregivers on the program so they can support each other
Sponsor can provide additional opportunities for engagement among the monitors/nutrition specialists and providers themselves
Promote. The Fifth Point of Engagement (Labor of Love, 2020 p. 24-25)
The sequence of messages and who they’re from matter here. Consider the motivations and mindsets of the FFN caregivers. The trusted messenger is once again crucial to engagement. They can be testimonials or people reaching out to community members to share the benefits of the Food Program and even the challenges and how to deal with or overcome those challenges.
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