Growing Our Voice: Powering Up on the Anticipated USDA Meal Pattern Proposed Rule

Register Now for Growing Our Voice: Powering Up on the Proposed USDA Meal Pattern Rule. Growing Our Voice is a recurring learning series designed by the CACFP Roundtable to help our community understand, navigate, and confidently respond to the anticipated proposed rule that will change the meal pattern for the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Each session will focus on easily digestible information to help us understand the commenting process, share what we hear is going to be in the proposed new meal pattern rule, and hear your thoughts as we shape a public comment that reflects the CACFP community’s needs and realities. This series supports anyone who wants to deepen their understanding, strengthen their voice, and contribute to shaping the future of CACFP.

You can register for each session below using this single link! You can choose them all or just the topic you're most interested in joining.

Date	Topic	Description
June 25 10:00 - 10:30 a.m. PST	Session 1: Intro — DGAs, MAHA, and the Path to the Anticipated Proposed Meal Pattern Rule	This kickoff session lays the foundation for understanding how we arrived at USDA’s anticipated proposed changes to the CACFP meal pattern. We’ll briefly walk through the newly published Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) that we think will impact CACFP meal patterns, explore the role of MAHA in shaping nutrition policy, and connect these pieces to the anticipated meal pattern updates, which will be open for public comment. By the end of this session, participants will have a clear picture of the policy landscape, why these changes are being proposed, and how our community’s voices can influence the final rule.
July 9 10:00 - 10:30 a.m. PST	Session 2: The Power of Public Comment	This session breaks down the “what” and “why” of the federal rulemaking process so participants can feel confident engaging with it. We’ll explore what a proposed rule actually is, why USDA releases it for public comment, and how individual and collective comments influence the final CACFP meal pattern. Participants will learn what counts as a meaningful comment, how agencies use them, and why provider and sponsor voices are essential in shaping policy that reflects real‑world needs. By the end, the process will feel clearer, more accessible, and more empowering.
July 23 10:00 - 10:30 a.m. PST	Session 3: How the Anticipated Proposed Meal Pattern Rule Could Shape CACFP	This session focuses on what the anticipated proposed meal pattern changes could mean for CACFP operators, sponsors, educators, and the communities they serve. We’ll walk through what we know so far about the potential impacts—both practical and programmatic—and create space to listen to questions and concerns from the field. This conversation helps ground our future comments in real experiences and shared insight.
August 6  10:00 - 10:30 a.m. PST	Session 4: Healthier Meals and the Real‑World Challenges of CACFP	This session explores the operational and financial realities behind implementing healthier meals in CACFP settings. While the desire for nutritious, high‑quality meals is shared across our community, the day‑to‑day work of making those meals possible is shaped by staffing, budgets, procurement, equipment, training, and time. We’ll look at how the proposed meal pattern changes intersect with real‑world constraints and hear directly from providers, sponsors, and operators about what it takes to put these standards into practice. This conversation surfaces both the commitment to healthier meals and the challenges programs face, helping us ground future comments in lived experience and practical feasibility.
August 20 10:00 - 10:30 a.m. PST	Session 5: From Insight to Impact — How to Comment	This session walks you through the practical steps of submitting a public comment on the anticipated proposed CACFP meal pattern rule. We’ll cover where to comment, what to include, how to structure your message, and what makes a comment meaningful to USDA reviewers. We’ll also revisit why commenting matters—how individual stories, operational realities, and community perspectives shape the final rule. By the end, participants will feel prepared, supported, and ready to turn their experiences into impactful public comments.

Some Background

Earlier this year, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) 2025-2030 were published. These guidelines influence how healthy diets and meals are perceived and how policy is made and implemented across a number of different programs, including the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). It can also be the catalyst for changing the visuals used to educate the American public about healthy and nutritious diets, e.g., the Food Pyramid, My Plate, and now the Upside-down Pyramid.

It is written in law that the CACFP Meal Pattern is to be aligned with the DGAs. Typically, it takes a rather long time to update the meal pattern according to the DGAs. That is not the case this time around. We know that a proposed rule changing the meal pattern for child nutrition programs has been written by USDA and is currently going through the rulemaking process in order to be published for public comment.

CACFP Roundtable is looking forward to spending some time with you, the CACFP community, to talk about what this might mean, get us excited about using our voices during the comment period, and hear from you what you're excited about and what your questions or concerns are. Register here.

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