Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
November 4, 2024
Celebrating Culture Through the CACFP
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) ensures nutritious meals to over 4.5 million children and adults every day. The CACFP is operated in child care settings in every U.S. State and in some Tribal Nations.
Many Tribal Nations participate in multiple federal nutrition programs to address food insecurity in their communities. Recent data shows that the rate of food insecurity is higher in Tribal communities compared to the overall American population. Based on 2022 data, 1 in 4 Native American individuals was food insecure, while the overall food insecurity rate in America was 1 in 10. The CACFP plays an important role in combatting food insecurity in Tribal Nations.
The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs (CTWS) is a sponsor of the CACFP for their early childhood education center that operates a day care program for infants to children aged 3, as well as a Head start program for 3 to 5 year old children. CTWS actually runs the oldest tribally funded Head Start program in the Nation and has been operating the CACFP in their programs for over 30 years. At their center, CTWS serves 2 meals and a snack to around 140 children every day. Operating the CACFP has helped CTWS provide nutritious, well-balanced meals for the children and that’s what Louisa Fuentes, Food Service Manager for CTWS, is most passionate about.
“I think the benefit of the CACFP is that we can provide healthy and nutritious meals to our kids that are well balanced and that will give them the nutrition they need to get through the day. That’s the most important thing to me, that we’re really utilizing our CACFP program as nourishment for our kids and really focusing on what we can serve that’s going to be the most nourishing to them. That’s where I find my passion is in knowing that I’m nourishing our next generation and that I’m giving them all these opportunities to try new things and to learn about different foods and connect it to culture.”
Louisa shared that in the last 5 years, the CACFP has become more inclusive of cultural diets and traditional foods. The USDA has allowed more flexibility for Tribal Nations and has included multiple tribal foods into the Food Buying Guide that can now be creditable in the CACFP. CTWS has been able to incorporate Chinook Salmon and Huckleberries, two important traditional foods for their tribes, into their menus. CTWS tries to provide traditional food for the kids at least once a month. These traditional meals are used as an opportunity for the kids to learn more about their culture. For an upcoming cultural meal CTWS will be serving the meal in their Tribe’s traditional longhouse. The kids will help set the table, they will learn to sing a traditional song before eating and will honor their water before enjoying their CACFP creditable meal family style.
Incorporating more indigenous foods has helped CTWS lead into a bigger conversation with the kids about why it is important for them to carry on their culture and traditions. Connecting those values with the food makes it a lot easier for the kids to understand. CTWS also tries to teach the children about different indigenous cultures by including traditional foods from those cultures into their menus and incorporating them into their lesson plans. For example, CTWS has introduced the kids to Quinoa and talked to them about how it is considered an ancient grain that was important to the Incan people.
Incorporating more indigenous foods has helped CTWS lead into a bigger conversation with the kids about why it is important for them to carry on their culture and traditions. Connecting those values with the food makes it a lot easier for the kids to understand. CTWS also tries to teach the children about different indigenous cultures by including traditional foods from those cultures into their menus and incorporating them into their lesson plans. For example, CTWS has introduced the kids to Quinoa and talked to them about how it is considered an ancient grain that was important to the Incan people.
“Looking through the Food Buying Guide gives me more ideas about how I can incorporate different kinds of indigenous foods to really bring it home to the kids that our culture is important, and other peoples cultures are important, and this is how we can celebrate them even if it’s just with the dish that represents a certain nationality or an indigenous tribe. I just really want to encourage other operators to consider indigenous foods in their menus, even if they’re not a center that has a huge indigenous population. If you’re serving any indigenous children from any nation whether it be the United States or Mexico, Central America, wherever it be in the world, think about how you are serving and how you can incorporate more indigenous foods into the menus.”
Louisa recognizes that there may be some reticence for other Tribal Nations to participate in the CACFP, but she wants to let them know that the CACFP has become more responsive to indigenous food ways, and that working with the CACFP specialist at your State agency to help them understand how your Tribal Nation operates can make the program much easier. The benefits of the CACFP outweigh the challenges. Not only does the CACFP help Tribal Nations serve more nutritious foods, but through incorporating more traditional foods into the menu, there has been greater parent and community interest in CTWS’ program.
“Before I was in the position I am in, some of the managers were kind of scared of the CACFP. Since I’ve taken over, I’ve found that as long as I communicate our needs to the State, they’re good about working with us on it.”
The CACFP is one of the programs helping to combat food insecurity in Tribal Nations. When surveyed, tribal representatives shared that child nutrition programs have helped address some food security challenges, by ensuring access to nutritious foods for their children. Representatives also shared that the nutrition education through FNS programs has provided important nutritional and cultural knowledge for their communities. However, representatives shared that there are still limitations to these programs’ ability to address food insecurity in tribal nations because there is a lack of awareness about the programs and obstacles to outreach that have hindered participation. There are over 500 federally recognized tribes across the United States, and while there is no current data on how many participate in the CACFP, it certainly is not all of them. By participating in the CACFP, Tribal Nations can help to ensure that the children in their community are food and nutrition secure.