2025 Research & Resources

A two-year plate waste study of SFSP and CACFP participants revealed a great deal of information, including what children were and were not eating. Learn about the subsequent adjustments that were made and what reevaluations looked like.

Seventeen percent of households with children and upwards of 30% of child care providers deal with the challenge of food insecurity in their personal lives. Learn and discuss ways to reduce stigma amongst food-insecure populations and better support food security within local communities.

The way we feed children is crucial for their development and it is also important to help children learn how to have a healthy relationship with food. Hear how you can add playful learning strategies into daily routines that will accomplish both of these objectives.

Use Data to Drive Action. That’s California’s Health and Human Services team’s guiding principle. Discover how the CACFP Branch created a Data Innovation Unit to explore ways to provide data analysis to make better-informed program decisions, identify methods to measure program improvements, and create data stories connecting CACFP to the communities served.

While hunger and nutrition insecurity pose similarities, they also have distinct differences. Additionally, a lack of access to healthy food affects early childhood development. Discover ways of increasing food security and supporting early care and education professionals to implement strategies critical for continued nutrition access.

Learn how a Harvest of the Month program can incorporate nutrition education while encompassing early education foundations. Get inspiration and a guide to hands-on activities and resources to start your own program and create a meaningful learning environment that embeds healthy habits throughout the day.

Early relational health is a strength-based framework focusing on safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs) between children and caregivers. As an early care professional who is uniquely positioned to support children in this area, including social-emotional learning (SEL) skill development, learn how to enhance your understanding of relational health.