Latest News for the Child and Adult Care Food Program

Updated Guidance on Offer Versus Serve and Family Style Meals in the CACFP

Published: 44 days ago
" USDA has released Policy Memo CACFP 02-2025, Offer Versus Serve and Family Style Meals in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. This memorandum provides updated guidance on the use of Offer Versus Serve (OVS) in the adult day care and at-risk afterschool settings, as well as the use of family style meals in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
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USDA has released Policy Memo CACFP 02-2025, Offer Versus Serve and Family Style Meals in the Child and Adult Care Food Program. This memorandum provides updated guidance on the use of Offer Versus Serve (OVS) in the adult day care and at-risk afterschool settings, as well as the use of family style meals in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). This memorandum contains two attachments that highlight frequently asked questions and answers and OVS examples for breakfast, lunch, and supper meal service. This memorandum supersedes CACFP 05-2017, Offer Versus Serve and Family Style Meals in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

In addition to the information included in previous memoranda, this memorandum specifically: 

•    Updates terminology from “food component” to “meal component” per CACFP regulations; 
•    Updates definitions listed under “Terms to Know;” 
•    Includes two new questions clarifying policy regarding meals for supervising adults (#13) and meal accommodations (#14); 
•    Includes an attachment with updated examples of OVS; 
•    Adopts standardized terminology such as “institutions and facilities;” and 
•    Reorganizes information throughout the memorandum for clarity.

The full memo can be found here. TDA will be incorporating guidance from this memo in a future CACFP Handbook release.

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